


Forever Young

by TotallyTinkerbell



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Development, Childhood Trauma, Drama & Romance, F/M, Noorhelm - Freeform, Redemption, Retcon, Secret Relationship, Trust Issues, implied eating disorder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-07 16:45:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12845319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TotallyTinkerbell/pseuds/TotallyTinkerbell
Summary: A retcon of Noorhelm's story in which William isn't a posessive douchbag that manipulates young girls, and Noora actually sticks to some of her values.The fic will have 12 chapters, covering the first and second seasons. Might write an epilogue for S3 and S4...





	1. And I Was Like Baby...

**Author's Note:**

> This story will include small behavioural changes and dialogue altercations, but will follow the majority of the S1 and S2 plot. Some additional scenes have been written to explain some stuff better. I tried not to change too much.

**NOORA**

William Magnusson was the biggest cliché in existence. First class fuckboy, a spoiled West-Oslo brat and a horrible haircut that caused for all the girls to swoon when he flipped it. And unlike the Biebz, who rocked his signature bangs in 2010, it wasn’t anything pretty. And then there was that awful clique of his, usually at least 2 guys who called themselves proud members of “The Penetrators” which had made Noora shiver in disgust when she first heard it.

Nope, she didn’t get it. And she didn’t need to. Her plan was to stay as far away from any Penetrator alike. But considering both Eva and Vilde had somehow found themselves on the receiving ends of looks from Chris and William respectively, that was going to be tricky. Noora wasn’t too excited about going to the party at Borkis’ house for this exact reason, but Eva had been so proud scoring the invite, Vilde had been so excited and it was all part of Sana’s big plan to get other girls to want to be a part of their buss. So Noora agreed to go. She put on her blue shirt and some pants and met up with the girls before they went to the party. 

A party that didn’t really go to plan, to say the least, as Sana ‘caused a scene’ with the Pepsi Max girls after Noora had left Eva alone to take a call from a friend in Madrid. She didn’t even notice how Vilde and William were busy making out outside when it all happened. All she knew was that the party didn’t go according to plan and Vilde was upset.

And maybe, just maybe, she thought Vilde would give up on her dream romance to realize that the Penetrators only caused drama and heartbreak. But no such thing happened. Instead, Vilde talked to Noora and Eva about damage control and birth control, and Noora started wishing actively that William wouldn’t hurt Vilde. Which she felt utterly powerless against.

But Noora knew guys like William. Knew his type precisely, and she knew the damage they left behind them. Girls sobbing on their beds for hours, swearing they wouldn’t have sex ever again. Heartbreak and social-media stalking. It was all part of the fuckboy package. And the only thing she was capable of, was trying to prepare Vilde the best she could. Trying to get her to relax the hours before her big date with William. And repeating time and time again that she didn’t need to have sex with him if she didn’t want to. But that was the problem. Vilde wanted to. It was her mission.

**WILLIAM**

William got out of his car and looked up at the rain that decided to cast over Grefsen. It made him hurry over to the front porch of the house rather quickly, before ringing the doorbell and putting both hands in his pockets. Vilde was supposed to be here, according to her text. However it wasn’t her who opened the door, and William knew then that the night would be more difficult than he had planned. 

At the door stood Eva, Chris’ latest obsession which had put her in the center of school gossip. But at least he knew she was part of Vilde’s clique. He also knew Vilde’s clique had a few more girls in it. He was pretty sure that Chris once mentioned one of them was also called Chris. And then there was this girl, stumbling onto the driveway of the house where he was going to pick up Vilde. 

She was blonde, like Vilde, but that was where the comparison ended and as she spoke, William found himself frowning. Because she seemed drunk. Or a little tipsy at least, and Vilde the most of all. Not that he paid much attention to Vilde. Not when this girl was talking and smiling awkwardly about jackets and dropping one of. It was ridiculously obvious how much of a lie that was, and William felt the corner of his mouth turn up briefly because it was an amusing sight.

The three girls all giggly as they stood there, not making sense the slightest bit. Neither did it make sense that someone could still look so good even when they were basically soaked. Because the rain was pouring down now, and William was really glad his friend’s place didn’t have a skylight.

Because that’s where he was taking Vilde. Walking away from Eva’s front porch, following after the girls to Vilde who waited just around the corner. Who greeted him excitingly with a cheek kiss. William caught a glimpse of the girl a bit further down the street, arguing while giggling with the other girl who had to be Chris. 

“Where are we going?” Vilde then asked, and William looked at her, remembering what this night was all about. And for a moment he wanted to call it off. Come up with a stupid excuse of why it wasn’t a good time. But then Vilde was trying really hard. 

Eventually they went to his friend’s place. He offered her something to drink, she drank some of the expensive wine he found in the kitchen, and they were in the bedroom rather quickly after that.

The next morning he told her he had to leave at 9AM, and that was it. He walked by her at the school and paid no attention to her anymore. Because that chapter was over. And the night after he woke up next to Vilde, Sara Nørstellien texted him.

And so William replied. Which was what he was good at. He was good at giving these girls what they wanted, and then he made sure they knew he didn’t want a relationship. Which he tried to convey to Vilde when she confronted him in the school yard. 

His choice of words hard, trying to convey the message that nobody would be able to change him in any way. He did what he always did. Things had worked out fine the way they went. 

However that all ended the minute Vilde walked away from him with tears in her eyes, and then the girl took her place. Only she didn’t look anything like the girl he first saw weeks ago. 

William looked at her attentively. Trying to see if she would be calm and try to reason with him, begging him to give Vilde another chance. But he was wrong. So wrong.

“Stop walking around like a fucking cliché”, infamous words of Noora Amalie Sætre to William Magnusson. And William knew then and there. 

Because they weren’t the first words from her lips he heard. Not the first time he saw her, either, which he knew might be to his advantage. The fact that he knew that this was all part of who she wanted to be. Strong, empowered, loyal to her friends. But he knew there was a soft side to her. 

And he knew then. He knew that by the way she looked at him after her speech, she was different. Nothing like the flirty looks that most girls gave him. The shy smiles they had. This girl was something else. And he knew that. He knew that after almost 3 years at Nissen, this girl could be the one to challenge him.

He had watched the other girls leave, presumably going to comfort Vilde, and he had put on a mask for the rest of the schoolyard as he kept walking to his car. While doing so, he texted Chris, and the message was clear. Finding out as much about her as he could. 

Find out if, aside from the stunt she pulled in the school yard, there were any more ways in which she would surprise him. In which she would be different than literally 95% of the female Nissen population. 

Within the span of two hours, he found out she lived in Spain for a while. Most girls seemed to be jealous of her style. Most guys among the penetrators knew who she was, and had a sweater reserved from her. But the consensus overall was the same: Noora Amalie Sætre would not fall for just any man. 

And William wasn’t sure if he could be that guy. If he could bring down her façade long enough, for her to see him too. But he was going to try. Noora was a blonde-haired, red-lipstick wearing first year who somehow blew his mind. He was going to get to see her soft side. He would do everything in his power to do so.

**NOORA**

Noora didn’t see William Magnusson again until she was in the middle of singing Justin Bieber. Which would have been bad enough if anyone had walked up to them on the bench. But he wasn’t just anyone. And if Eva’s silent presence on the bench next to her was anything then she knew she was on her own here.

“Would you help me out with some Spanish homework at my place?”

Noora’s eyebrows rose, and she let out a laugh because who did that? Which 3 rd year guy asked a first year for help, tutoring Spanish. She quickly came to the conclusion as she got reminded of Eva next to her, which unavoidably reminded her of Vilde’s tears.

“Excuse me, Wilhelm.”

He corrected her, and Noora nodded. Just like they had done in that episode of Suits. “Well, that pretty much answers the question, don’t you think? I don’t even know your name.”

William smiled at her. Why was he smiling?

“You can call me however you want. If you agree to help me.”

Noora looked at the ground for a second, thinking over her options. Then she threw her head backwards, looking at him with a smile on her lips.

“Well, then I choose to call you ‘asshole’.”

William fixed his hair, the annoying hair, and smiled at her again. Which let her to conclude this guy liked being rejected. “So that means yes?” he asked.

Noora shook her head, killing that thought. 

“I thought I was pretty clear but…. No.” 

William nodded. He actually got up from the bench, and Noora relaxed her shoulders a bit. Then she looked up as he stopped walking, and turned to her.

“I hope you will change your mind.”

Eva looked at her briefly but Noora didn’t say anything until William was at distance, in his car and driving away from the school to the sound of some russ-track. Then Noora sighed deeply, turning to Eva asking “Who does he think he is.” And Eva asks her about naming him Wilhelm.

To that, Noora smiles widely. “It’s a suppression technique I saw on suits once. Always wanted to try it.”

**

It’s about 6 days after that interaction that Noora starts to regret that decision. Starts to regret having given him even a minute of her time. Because now he thought it was a game, and judging by his texts he was into it.

It came to the point where Noora had to block the unknown number. When she did, she enjoyed a full day of calm, and she had almost forgotten about the encounter as she walked down the stairs with Eva.

That’s when Noora learned that talking about Justin Bieber seemed to summon William Magnusson for some reason, because moments later she noticed someone leaning over her and calling her ‘beautiful’.

This time, unlike when she was in the middle of trying to cheer Eva up, Noora didn’t miss a beat, and she offered him her biggest smile as she greeted him with “Wilhelm!”

Which, again, maybe she shouldn’t have, and she wished she remembered that sentiment because now William was still going with this game and Noora had to end it, now. 

“You have to give up now.” 

“Give up? I won’t give up.” 

Noora wanted to roll her eyes really badly. It was the 21 st century and guys still didn’t understand no. It was tragic, really. Yet for William it seemed amusing, because he smiled.

“Listen, Noora Amalie Sætre. You’re a smart girl. You know what this is about. So how about you just stop playing hard to get.”

Noora looked up at that. At the attempt he had just made at calling her out, and she contemplated her options.

“Fine. I will help you if you apologize to Vilde.” She said, her face showing not even the slightest hint of a smile. She knew he would never go for that. 

“Oh no, I don’t need the Spanish tutoring anymore, yet you were very helpful with that.” He said sarcastically. And what the hell? 

“But how about this: You agree to one date with me, and I will apologize to Vilde.”

Then he smiled over at Eva before looking back at Noora, up and down, which made Noora cross her arms. Again, all William did was smile, as he walked backwards and Noora saw that he was going to say something else.

“Eres la chica más bonita del todo escula.”

Noora blinked. Once, twice, and then she grabbed Eva’s arm and they walked outside. And in the minute that Eva took to talk to Isak, Noora willed herself to pay attention to their conversation. But she was lost. Lost because she wasn’t sure if what had just happened was serious or not.

And as Eva told her the story about how apparently Isak had fallen for her, Noora hummed. As they walked to the tram to go to Eva’s house, Noora let Eva talk about how she just needed closure for the entire situation.

And maybe that’s what Noora was offered. Maybe if she accepted William’s deal, it would be over. And his game would never get to the point where Vilde asked questions. Maybe that was it.

So when Noora was on Eva’s bed that evening, she grabbed out her phone and checked the blocked number. Which she unblocked. She breathed in deeply and started typing.

‘Fine. You have to apologize tomorrow, at the tree lighting.’ Noora typed.

William left her on sent, and Noora buried her head in the pillow in front of her. What had she done. Why had she given in? What did she bring upon herself.

“What’s up?” Eva asked, and Noora looked up.

“Nothing. Just… what you’re saying. Guys literally give me headaches sometimes.”


	2. The Girl From Ipanema

**NOORA**

January 2016 seemed to pass impossibly slow. Not only was Eskild in a mood because there was no more Christmas to look forward too, but Linn also hit a particular rough-patch to the point where she didn’t even leave her room for food anymore. Noora had to go in and place the food on her nightstand, and usually only half of it was eaten when she collected it again.

What also didn’t help was that Eva kept giving her looks about their discovery during the tree-lighting, but what was most exhausting of all, was seeing William walk around with the Penetrators.

He did apologize to Vilde, which made Noora glad although she would have preferred to be there when he had done it. The most important part was that he did, and now Vilde could move on. Or try to move on, but every time William passed even remotely in her proximity, Vilde’s face had lit up with a smile.

Noora soon figured out that she was wrong by thinking Vilde would move on that easily, and to top it all off she now had a promise to keep which was to go on a date with William Magnusson. And that was not one of her resolutions for 2016.

And so she tried to keep him off. She encouraged the girls for lunch outside the school. She stayed away from people talking about Russ, the people who were curious to the Penetrator’s concept. 

Valentine’s was a day that Noora just ignored entirely, keeping her head down and allowing Vilde’s chatter about the top 10 date ideas in Oslo take center stage in the girls’ discussion. Chris complained about wanting a boyfriend because that would mean regular sex, and Eva kept stating she and Jonas were ‘friends’ now. She explicitly stated that Jonas was not the one providing her with anything on any regular basis, but that was anyone’s lie.

Sana was the only one who steered the girls away from boys in their lives, or lack thereof, and Noora hadn’t been more grateful of her than in February.

It wasn’t until rumors started about William and Russ, that Vilde’s interest peeked again, keen on partying with the Penetrators during Russ. And that’s when Eva almost ruined everything, by mentioning the conversation between Noora and William in December. Which was two months ago, and Noora almost hoped Eva had forgotten.

When she didn’t, Noora had to do damage repair and she told Vilde she never wanted anything to do with the selfish and unsympathetic person that William Magnusson was. She even went as far as to assure Vilde that she wouldn’t help him with Spanish even if he begged.

And that’s where Noora fucked up, because apparently Vilde didn’t know that William had asked Noora about that, and Noora was tired. Tired of explaining herself, tired of denying that there was anything between her and William, and tired of his damn texts.

During lunch that day, Noora read the latest text which said ‘You look beautiful today.’ Noora rolled her eyes reading over it, and glanced over to the other side of the cafeteria where the loud entrance of the Penetrators hadn’t gone unnoticed. She spotted William, looking down on his phone, and then hers beeped.

‘I know you’re looking at me too.’

Noora’s eyes grew a little wider at the implication. It was more than the usual texts. The usual flirty comments like “You look beautiful” or “You have a gorgeous laugh.”

Those she could handle. But now William had seemingly been encouraged to imply that Noora was even the slightest bit affected by him and no. No, she certainly wasn’t. There wasn’t a single fiber in her body that was.

She glanced over, ready to glare at him the minute she saw him. 

**WILLIAM**

The guys had chosen the perfect spot to sit in the cafeteria. It wasn’t entirely in the middle of the room so some tables around the corner weren’t even visible, but one table in particular was perfectly within William’s line of sight. 

The only thing disrupting it was Chris moving forward too much if he laughed at some of the jokes Anders made, and his line of sight also got interrupted when someone from another table got up to get to class. But as long as Chris sat still, and after the girl left, William could steal glances of the blue and white striped shirt.

He knew she probably wouldn’t respond to his text, even though he had stepped it up a notch. But that was fine. It was not even the intention of the text. He didn’t need a reply, he needed a reaction. And he already had his next message typed out for when she would unavoidably look up.

He pressed send the moment he saw her brows knit together, and she looked his way in the same moment that he saw her phone buzz.

‘You lose’ his latest sent text read, but William didn’t even look at his phone at that point. He looked at her. Smiled at her, slightly tilting his head, and watched as Noora’s mouth fell open a little bit. 

This girl was magical. 

**NOORA**

Noora knew she had to redirect Vilde’s focus when more talk about the Penetrators emerged the rest of the week, and when everyone talked about concept, Noora knew the way to do it. So she invited the girls over to have a meeting about concept. What she didn’t expect was for Chris to invite Eva and the girls to a Penetrator party which happened to be on the same night that Noora had planned a chill girls night. And somehow she suspected William wasn’t entirely innocent in it.

“Well fine Noora. If you insist on a buss meeting we can have it before the penetrator party.” Vilde suggested. Eva stated she was going to a party with Jonas, after which followed another round of ‘we’re just friends’ to which Noora didn’t pay much attention because she was too busy staring at her phone again. 

‘If you don’t want to go to the party Friday, we could always have that date?’

Noora blinked her eyes a few times. This was his plan? Give her a dilemma between a party with the penetrators or the date with him? Had he never heard of free choice? She could go to neither. She could just stay at home, on the couch, and do nothing.

“I think I’m going to sleep with William at the party then.” Vilde spoke.

Or not. Noora couldn’t let the girls go alone. That would just make things worse for Vilde again, which was exactly what she tried to avoid. But going to the party would also be giving in to him. He would approach her, try to talk to her, she was certain of it.

So Noora found herself stuck. She found herself asking Eskild’s help in distracting Vilde and she found herself preparing to have a buss meeting and she just hoped that the girls would rather stay at the kollektiv than go to a penetrator party.

And it worked, at first. Not entirely according to plan, but okay, when Eskild pulled out all the stops (meaning Britney Spears) to turn the kitchen into a dancefloor. The girls were all dancing, drinking, and having fun.

Then, Noora’s phone beeped again.

‘I can get Chris to cancel the party. If you agree to go on a date with me next Friday.’

Noora looked up to where Vilde was showing off the tops she wanted to wear and she swallowed, typing her phone. In the same moment, Chris asked when they would be leaving to the party, and Noora knew that there would be no way to convince the girls to stay at the kollektiv. 

‘No party. 7PM.’ She texted back.

Two minutes later Eva’s phone rang and Eva announced the party was cancelled. The girls all seemed sad about it, but all Noora could do was try to hide her relief.

An hour later, she was in the kitchen cleaning up after the girls decided to go to Eva’s party along with her instead, and Eskild leaned against the doorway. “So who is this William guy that Vilde is obsessed with? I swore you mentioned him before too?” 

Noora sighed. “Yeah.. He’s the guy with the Spanish tutoring.”

“Oh… wait, the asshole that was rude to Vilde and then tried to hook up with you? He’s back at playing Vilde now?”

Noora nodded. “Or.. wel, no. I was able to keep him away from her. I got him to cancel the party that he hosted so Vilde wouldn’t be around him.”

“You got him to cancel the party? How did you do that?” Eskild wasn’t curious.

“By agreeing to go on a date with him.”

“You’re… you’re going on a date with the guy Vilde is crazy about?”

“No, I mean…. I’m doing this for Vilde, you know. So I need your help, next week. You need to pretend it’s your birthday so that I have an excuse as to why I can’t go with the girls on Friday.”

Eskild rolled his eyes and smiled. “You needed my help today too…. 300 kroner.”

“Eskild! You barely helped at all today. I’ll get you 200kroner if you help me for next week.”

“250.”

“Okay okay. Just promise me.”

“Promised.” Eskild said with a grin on his face. Noora sighed deeply once he was out of sight and continued to clean the kitchen before heading to bed early in the night. As pictures appeared on Instagram she knew the girls at least had fun. And they didn’t seem to be around any penetrators. So it was worth it. 

Right?

**

Luckily the Jonas and Eva situation distracted Noora for most of the week so that her impending time spend with William wasn’t on her mind that often. But still, it was on her mind often. 

It was on her mind when she saw him walking across the school yard as she sat on the benches with Sana. It was on her mind when she was at her locker and he walked down the stairs at the end of the hallway. And it was certainly on her mind when William said he would pick her up to go to a special location.

Which, in the world of a fuckboy like William could only mean a hotel. And Noora wouldn’t step into a hotel with William Magnusson. That’s where she drew a line.

She chose to dress as casual as possible for that reason, as she stood in front of her mirror that Friday evening.

**WILLIAM**

“Chris, I don’t care about that party tonight. I told you this date is important.” William said rolling his eyes. But Chris wouldn’t give in, hadn’t given in for the last 30 minutes, trying to get William to change his mind.

Apparently William showing up at this party would reduce the risk of it escalating, since the Yakuza had been making threats for days now and they would certainly strike the minute there was any sign of weakness.

“And you going on a date with some first year is weak, William. Seriously.”

“Says the guy who’s sleeping with Eva.”

Chris scoffed. He didn’t like to be called out on his fuckboy behavior. William actually happened to like Chris’ girlfriend though. It was a little bit pathetic that she didn’t realize how many other girls there were around Chris, but she was nice overall. Had good music taste, at least.

“Actually I’m not sleeping with Eva. But I’m not going on dates with her either.” Chris reasoned.

William looked up as he grabbed his keys. “Chris, cut it out.”

“William, you’re seriously going to mess up our entire russetiden over one girl?” Chris asked. 

William started maneuvering him towards the door. Chris was objecting to being kicked out, and William was ignoring him. The objections vaguely reminded him of the ones he heard back when he was a kid, while his brother was being dragged down the hall and stuck in a room or a closet for him to calm down.

William put those thought out of his mind. He opened the front door to his apartment in Vika, and then closed it behind him and Chris, locking it behind him. “Time to leave, Chris. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” William said.

Chris vaguely objected something else, but William was already heading down the stairs to get to his car, which he would pick up Noora in.

To his surprise, the address she gave him was a place in Grunerløkka, and he arrived at 6.58 outside the apartment, and he texted Noora to say he was outside. Two minutes later he saw her appearing in the doorway and he waited for a moment to see what she would do. Then he smiled, and he opened the door of the car for her.

Once she got in he greeted her with a simple ‘hi’.

“Are you ready?”

“Ready for what?” Noora replied.

William looked ahead as he started the engine of the car. 

They then drove to downtown Oslo surrounded by lights in the middle of the night, with utter darkness at the sky in contrast. It was beautiful, and it was cool. But it was nothing to drive through the city like this compared to the view William had in mind.

Driving up the car by the spot he did know however that he would need to use some more words to get Noora to stop being skeptical, which was what the look she was giving him, was meant to convey.

**NOORA**

Technically William couldn’t complain anymore at this point, Noora thought. She had gone with him. Sat in a car with him for far too long, received far too many looks which she tried to ignore. She noticed his smile in her peripheral. Surely he would be happy enough with this, and he wouldn’t have anything against driving her home right now?

But no. Noora couldn’t catch a break. After watching him grab stuff from the backseat she was now listening to him calling her out on her bad date-manners. 

Noora frowned, looking over to him momentarily, before she turned back looking in front of her, arms crossed over her chest.

She finally seemed to have some peace and quiet when he closed the door of the car and walked over to some place in the distance. A bench? Okay, there was a bench.

Noora sighed and sat in the car for another 2 minutes. The car was silent, allowing for her thoughts to have 100% free range in screaming at her.

‘What are you doing on a date with this guy who was horrible to your friend’ ‘Just sit on that bench for 2 minutes and then ask to go’ and her favorite ‘Just take the car and drive off.’

Only Noora didn’t drive. And judging by how William seemed to get comfy on the bench, he wasn’t keen on driving anywhere else anytime soon. Noora realized she was basically dependent on him at this point. And the sentiment was horrible.

So she went outside. Grabbed her bag and joined him on the bench, attempting to get some control on the situation.

Right away, she got the blanket in her lap and she cheered internally. He could suffer in cold, she didn’t have to.

Noora then looked aside when she heard the clinking of a thermos and she rolled her eyes. What did he think was going to happen? He got her drunk and they would have sex in the back of his car on top of a hill overlooking Oslo?

“Cocoa?”

Oh. Okay… no alcohol. At least it was something. 

Noora looked aside and allowed herself to question her posts on Instagram. Would that be how he knew she loved cocoa?

Noora shook her head at the offer, and she stared ahead.

During William’s story, she looked anywhere but at him, even closing her eyes for a little bit. 

It wasn’t until he started talking about a blue room that she looked aside, convinced he was mocking her with a nonsense story he just came up with. She was convinced of it when he asked her about wall-to-wall carpet.

Noora rolled her eyes. “You’re kidding me, right? You think I fall for that kind of stuff? This ridiculous situation with the view and the cocoa and all that. If I wasn’t convinced already that you were a cliché then I would be now. This is stuff straight from a high school film.” Noora said, and once he stared at her for a while she shook her head slightly. Good, he had nothing to say.

Now could this date be over with?

“Alright. Then what shall we do then? What shall we talk about?”

“How about we don’t talk?” Noora replied. “How about we don’t talk and in 3 minutes you can take me back home and we’re done with this. Because I… I don’t even have time for this.”

Maybe that was clear. It seemed to be, judging by the silence from William’s end of the conversation that followed.

“So back to the tv-room then.” William said. 

Noora sighed. But to her own frustration, a smile appeared on her lips.

Yet William didn’t talk much more. For a good 6 minutes. In which Noora’s eyes softened. In which Noora started to actually look at the view, instead of stare ahead of her. And as soon as she did, she knew this place was in the top 5 of her favorite places in Oslo.

Despite the fact that the place was now glued to William Magnusson.

“Why are you here then, Noora?” William then asked, just after his name went through her mind.

Noora looked aside and she rolled her eyes again. But her annoyance at him was again drowned out by the smile on her face.

“Because I take pity on the people who can not form the preterito perfecto.”

William chuckled at that, taking a sip from the cocoa.

“So you did read all those messages.”

Noora looked aside and brought her cup to her lips, in order to hide her face a bit. Maybe she did. Maybe she laughed at them. And if it was because she thought it was funny, and not because she thought it was hopeless and ridiculous, nobody had to know.

“You know, Vilde has been texting me about partying with us.” William said, and when Noora raised her eyebrows, William sighed.

“Look… It seems like you’re keen on apologizing so if I have to apologize to you too for last fall, consider it done. But Vilde’s interest in me now is not because of anything I did.”

Noora looked aside.

“Of course it isn’t. You’re innocent.” She said sarcastically.

William tilted his head. “Only one of us is lying about this date to their friends.”

Noora waited a bit to gather her reply.

“I only didn’t tell my friends because this doesn’t mean anything. Because I’m not interested in you, and I never will be. Because you are controlling. And selfish. You use people to get what you want. And you are selfish.”

William was silent for maybe an entire minute.

“You said selfish twice.”

Noora glared at him and William had a playful smile on his face.

“As a future journalist, you should pay attention to that.” He smiled.

Noora shook her head and crossed her arms closer over her chest. She then picked up the cup for the second time, and this time she drank from it. 

When William looked at her, an eyebrow raised, Noora shrugged.

“I prefer it cold. That’s when it tastes like chocolate milk.”

They both smiled. And something inside Noora softened. Then she turned towards him more, her voice sincere.

“But I’m glad you did apologize to Vilde. And she will move on soon enough.”

William nodded, and smiled, then looking up when his phone rang.

Noora didn’t pay attention to the call when he picked it up, only making note of his apologetic face.

Minutes later they were driving again, and Noora regretted that decision not to pay attention to the call now. Because now the person driving her through Oslo was clenching the steering wheel.

William’s face even displayed some sort of worry, which was entirely foreign for as far as Noora had seen his face in different states.

“Everything okay?”

William looked aside to her for just a moment.

“I should ask you that. What you thought of tonight. But I know you can’t wait to get home, so I don’t think I even have to ask that.”

And then the car turned back to silence. William drove back to Noora’s street, and allowed her to get out. 

“Just so we’re clear… I don’t owe you anything anymore.” Noora then said.

“You don’t owe me anything.” William replied.

Noora nodded, but something in the back of her mind itched. Something wasn’t right. Then, William’s car engine fired up again and Noora turned around from where she was walking towards the door.

“William?” She said, and right away he looked up at her, in surprise.

“I hope the next girl you take up to that spot is really into blue furniture.”

William nodded and then he drove off.


	3. Slow Motion Video Right Now

**NOORA**

In hindsight, Noora should’ve known better than for Eskild to actually do what was promised. Finding Eva on their couch the next morning only came as one in a series of many surprises the last 12 hours. 

Noora was still trying to get over that, when Eva asked about her date and then Noora froze. Eva knew she was on a date? Fucking Eskild.

“Yeah, with the Tinder guy… How was he?”

Noora felt the air return to her lungs. “Eh… nice.” She replied cautiously. 

Eskild barging into the living room came as a welcome surprise, and after she was done yelling at him, Noora finally took the cold shower she had intended to take before this chaotic morning. Because she had to get her head straight. Whatever happened with William yesterday, nobody could ever find out. Especially not Vilde.

**WILLIAM**

It’s the next day at school that William realized he would have to explain his lack of bruises, and as he parked the car he knew this was one story he wanted to be over with. And it would be, had he been there. Had he been with his friends and Chris, and ended the stupid tirade of the Yakuza gang once and for all.

Yet Chris had told him more than once that his presence wouldn’t have made a difference. That they came at them in full force, and it would have only resulted in him getting hurt too. Which William ignored, and he kept on checking his phone, texting with the other guys to figure out what to do. Easter break was coming up, and they would all go to a cabin, and they would discuss a strategy there for when they got back to Oslo.

They had a week of school to get through first though, and they didn’t leave for the cabin until Saturday which had prompted the idea for William to throw a party on Friday.

Yet first they would have to get through Monday morning. William would have to listen to concerned whispers and gossip, people wondering why he wasn’t at the fight.

And he couldn’t say the truth. Chris had made that much clear. If the Yakuza knew William was with a girl over going with his friends, things would be fucked. They would be especially fucked if they found out that the girl was Noora, someone who William was trying way harder for than he usually would.

Then again, who was he kidding. With Noora nothing was like what William usually did.

Which was exactly why he knew there would be nobody knowing about the date. Noora didn’t even have to ask. He didn’t even expect to see her at all when he got out of the car in front of the school. She made herself pretty clear. Which is why the concerned look on her face surprised him when he saw her.

**NOORA**

It wasn’t enough that Eva was gossiping. That word had gotten out that William was at home with some girl, and that he missed the fight because of that. It wasn’t worse enough that Eva and Vilde were playing pingpong with facts (more like lies and rumors) they claimed to have gotten from people over the weekend.

No, all of that wasn’t enough. Because then William had to appear at the school in the exact moment that the girls were discussing him. 

The feeling in her chest that rose when she saw William, felt like a betrayal. Because she felt sorry for him. Felt anything aside from the previous all-consuming dislike of him. And it felt weird. 

Part of her even wanted to walk up to him. Ask him if everything was okay, if he got to his friends on time. But by the looks of it, that wasn’t exactly the case. And by the way William was crossing the schoolyard in big strides, it didn’t seem like he even wanted anyone talking to him.

So Noora managed to stay right where she was, holding the hair out of her face at the gush of wind that came through, and she watched until William was all but inside the building, before turning back to the girls, and trying to follow with whatever gossip they were continuing.

She made up an excuse to get away from it during lunch, saying she had to study so that she wouldn’t have to listen to another round of names from girls who could’ve been with William at that moment. Because she knew that somehow, the longer she had to listen to those other names, the more visible to bold letters on her face would be that spelled out ‘it was me’.

Or that’s how it felt, especially when Vilde started pointing out various potential girls in the schoolyard. Most of the girls which Vilde described as ‘thin’. Then she casually added ‘like you’ when describing the type of girls William liked, and Noora’s heart picked up pace. 

“If it’s true that William’s dating a girl, she’s definitely really skinny.” Vilde explained

For a moment then it seemed like Vilde was going to drop the subject, until she started talking about Friday, when William was apparently hosting a party. Once again, Vilde seemed more determined than ever, applying the logic that the girl William was dating was bound to be at his party.

A party Noora decided quickly she would not be attending under any condition. 

“Noora, can we have the pregame at yours?” Vilde asked her once Eva said they couldn’t have it at hers, and Noora figured she could agree to that, but she had to set the record straight. 

“Yeah but I’m not going to William’s party.”

And maybe Noora should’ve thought of an excuse. Because of course Vilde would pick up on the fact that she hadn’t gone out with them last week either.

It was then that the subject luckily strayed away from William, as Vilde convinced herself that Noora had a girlfriend, and with the lingering alternative, Noora wasn’t going to say anything to contradict that so she simply smiled and went along with the joke.

Noora was still smiling and laughing at Vilde when Eva slid to the other side of the windowsill and told Noora “You’re dating William.”

And Noora’s mouth fell open. How did she figure that out so soon? Eva then covered her mouth and despite Noora trying to explain before she freaked out, Eva did exactly that; she freaked out.

“Okay, no no no. It wasn’t…” Noora sighed deeply. She knew she couldn’t have Eva know the truth. Not until she had figured things out. Because yes, there were things to be figured out. “It wasn’t a date. I tutored him. For Spanish. Last friday.” she lied. 

“Are you kidding me? Am I in an epiode of Gossip Girl? You’re tutoring a third year and… I mean, everyone has this wild fantasy about Wiliam dating some girl in secret and it’s just the two of you studying? What, is he too ashamed to admits he ‘no esta bueno en espanol’ ?”

Eva then looked at Noora when she looked anywhere but at Eva, and squinted her eyes. “But you don’t like him at all, right?”

Noora frowned and leaned her head back against the windowsil. “Eva, it’s William we’re talking about.”

“Okay but like… how is it like tutoring him then?” Eva asked. Noora started to wonder if she would ever hear the end of this.

“Weird.” Noora replied.

Eva kept grinning at her.

“Now you see why I can’t go on Friday? I don’t trust William not to joke about it being a date. He would say stuff like that and Vilde would find out and then everything is ruined.”

“Fucking hell, this is like a budget version of Gossip Girl.” Eva smiled.

“Okay, enough with the Gossip Girl references now.”

Eva jumped off the windowsill and smiled at Noora. “Noora’s, you’re impressive.” 

**WILLIAM**

Luck was in their favor. Rumors hadn’t reached far about William’s absence at the fight last weekend, and they had managed to focus the attention on something else by organizing the Penetrators party at William’s place on Friday.

To which William got a text with specific mention that Noora would NOT be there. 

Her friends were there however, and William caught Chris looking at Eva and some guys that looked vaguely familiar. “Dude, aren’t you over her?” William asked. Chris shoved William, stating he didn’t care about some first year and that this was entirely about the guys she was with. “Aren’t they from Handels?”

William shrugged. He honestly couldn’t care less. He was just trying to avoid any more drama. Tonight was a Penetrator party. He had a job to do. He had music to discuss, he had alcohol to keep flowing and he had to somehow avoid Vilde.

Just then, she popped up in front of them, asking to talk, and William exchanged a look with Vilde. Chris winked at him, fucking winked, and then he walked off in the opposite direction as where Eva was, heading for the pooltable.

“Talk?” William asked, and Vilde nodded. “Yeah. I was just wondering… I mean… Are you using this new girlfriend as yours as a cover up to hide the fact that you maybe have feelings for someone else?” she asked as her hand stroked over his arm. Her eyelids blinked flirtingly and William didn’t really know what to say. He found himself turning the words over in his head a dozen times. Tried to remember all the consequences of all the different scenarios. 

He knew that whatever he was going to say next, the rejection, would hurt Vilde. He knew that once that happened, Noora would probably be pissed off, again. And he would be right back where he started. But it wouldn’t be fair to lie to Vilde either. Noora wasn’t here. She knew Vilde was bound to be faced with reality? If Noora preferred not being around him over making sure her friend’s feelings weren’t hurt, then it wasn’t his fault?

“Nei, Vilde. I don’t like anyone else. There is nobody that I like.” He said, removing her hand. “And nobody I want to hook up with either. That’s done, Vilde.” He said.

He was done with that though, truly. 

Friday, no matter how inconvenient, had changed things. It had been a date, something William hadn’t done in a long time. For anyone.

Then again, Noora wasn’t just anyone.

**NOORA**

When Noora received the text that there was drama between Vilde and William, she heard the voice in the back of her head yell “I told you so.” and Noora knew she messed up. She knew she should’ve gone to the party, pretending to just go with Eva. Vilde wouldn’t have suspected anything. She could’ve kept an eye on her. Keep her away from William. Keep both of them away from William.

Now she was sitting at home in leggings, and William had apparently told Vilde something. And Noora feared the worst. And now she would have to go and fix things.

She was greeted by Eva right at the door, which was good. She could avoid having to walk around the place looking for her. Eva was also in the company of two guys - was one of them the guy from the couch last week?

“What happened? Where is Vilde?” Noora asked right away. Eva mumbled that Vilde ran away, and then Noora felt Eva’s arms clinging around her, and she smiled faintly.

“Yeah but what happened. You said there was drama?” Noora asked. Eva cursed, hugging the bottle of wine she was holding.

“Oh god, she is so in love with him. But…” Eva was whispering now. “I don’t think he is in love with her. He is in love with the girl from last week, obviously.” Eva slurred.

Noora frowned, then tried to get Eva to focus. “But they didn’t say anything about me?” Noora asked, slowly registering the sounds from ‘Penetrators 2016’ which was blasting through the place.

Eva’s penny took a while to drop, but when it did she wasn’t exactly subtle. “You were here before! Studying Spanish.” Eva whispered loudly, looking around at the apartment, winking at Halvor and Jakob.

Noora did her best to shush Eva and not acknowledge the comment.

“Ah anyways, you have to say hi to these boys. Halvor. And Jakob.” Eva giggled, and leaned into the two guys on either side of her.

Noora raised her eyebrows, then taking a moment to look out to the room and she sighed deeply. At least Eva was still convinced it was just studying. But the question was if Vilde was on that plan, or if William had fucked up and told her the real story.

Maybe they should’ve coordinated their story better. But then again William hadn’t made a particular statement at the school either. Could he have known that Noora didn’t want anyone to know about the date? It would be uncharacteristically William to not gloat about things like the date in front of the entire school though.

Then again, when it came to her, when had William done anything the way he usually did?

Noora noticed Jonas and Elias had now entered behind her, and in that moment she spotted William. But now Eva was all over Jonas, and Noora bit her lip. She could leave to talk to William. But then she would risk Eva saying something in her drunk mind that she didn’t mean to say.

But if she wouldn’t talk to William, the fallout would be much bigger. They hàd to get their stories on one line.

Luckily Jonas left, and Noora looked at the two guys in the doorway once more before she took off her coat and handed it to Eva. Purse too, and then she left to cross the room.

“Where are you going?” Jonas asked her as she passed him, and Noora frowned. “The toilet?” she lied. She knew he didn’t deserved to be lied too, and was just looking out for Eva, who Noora had just left alone with two guys. 

Noora sighed and turned around to look at Eva, and she felt a little bit better about leaving her when Halvor’s tongue was basically down Eva’s throat.

“I’ll be back soon.” Noora said with a smile, and then she walked into the other room where she had last seen William. Only now he wasn’t there, and she made her way to the room next to it, but there was no sign of William until there suddenly was, and he stood right in front of her.

**WILLIAM**

“You came.” William smirked, and Noora seemed stressed. 

“What did you say to Vilde? She walked out crying?”

William went through his hair and looked at Noora. “She basically wanted to hook up. And I told her I wasn’t interested. Said there was nobody that I liked.”

Noora frowned. “You didn’t say anything about me?”

William shook his head, smiling. “I lied saying I didn’t like anyone. That’s all on how much you got mentioned.”

Noora crossed her arms and looked at him. 

“Yeah but then… I mean, we still need to fix the story then.” Noora declared.

William then glanced aside at the other penetrators, whose cuts and bruises were just healing from the fight.

“Chris is the only person who knows anything. The other guys are as much in the wind as anyone else, I haven’t answered any questions.” William said. And there had been lots of questions. Questions about what would be more important than going to the party with them. Questions about where he was that made it take so damn long for him to get to Chris’ place. Many questions.

“Okay well, Eva was onto something so I had to tell her we studied. For Spanish. She thinks I’m tutoring you.” Noora explained.

William grinned at that. “What? I finally scored a tutoring session from Noora Amalie Sætre? And all it took was this?” William mocked.

Noora crossed her arms again and looked at him.

“William.” she complained, and William nodded, dropping the joke. “Yeah, okay. Spanish tutoring. I can do that. I can do whatever you want me to.” 

Noora rolled her eyes, then nodded, and William just looked at her. He would talk to Chris later, get him on board with the plan. As soon as he was done pining over Eva.

And great, fuck.

William rushed over to the hallway where some idiots were fighting, Eva in the middle of them, and William quickly split them up. 

They left, and then William dealt with the police showing up at his doorstep. He talked to them, listened to them shutting down the party, and rolled his eyes behind their backs.

He looked up when Noora asked to borrow his phone. “Eva left with my purse. I have to call someone.”

He took it out swiftly, handing it over to her before he followed after the cops, making sure they wouldn’t stumble upon anything too bad. Anything he couldn’t pay to make go away.

It didn’t take too long for the place to be cleared out, and William went through all the rooms when he stumbled upon Chris and his double distraction for the night. Noora had stumbled upon the same scene, and William was quick to end it then when he told Chris it was time to get out.

He leaned his arm against the archway behind Noora and glared at Chris when he asked about Noora joining.And Chris should really know better. Probably did know better, somewhere under the mountain of alcohol he had consumed. 

The thing was, Noora was glaring at Chris and she was basically handling it all by her own.

And Chris literally had a girl on his shoulder, so all it took was for William to raise an eyebrow, and Chris walked passed claiming he was only ‘kidding’.

“So, did you talk to…”

“My roommate. No. But I left a message on his voicemail so he will talk back soon.”

William busied himself with pouring drinks at the prospect of Noora staying around a little longer. Which he didn’t mind at all. He was planning on having a conversation with her soon anyways. Aside from their date, or the coverstory for said date. Maybe figure out more about her. Get her to talk. 

And well, apparently now he had the opportunity. But he had been drinking a little bit, not too much to lose control as a host but enough to want some more. So he poured Noora a glass too. 

This would be fine. This would be great. 

Or not.


	4. More Than Words

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of updates last week, but I had to focus on exams! I will be back to updating more frequently now :)

**WILLIAM**

“So when are your parents coming home?” she asked, and well, that question William asked himself since he was 13 and his parents first left him alone, a 15 year old Niko there to babysit. His parents hadn’t been home much since then.

His parents hadn’t even set foot in this apartment. So no, they wouldn’t be ‘coming home’. Which is what William told Noora.

“They’re not coming home.”

He didn’t turn around right away, and that was for the best because then Noora wouldn’t see how his jaw clenched as she asked “Where are they then?”

But he wanted to talk. Learn more. So apparently he was the one who would talk first. Fine.

“Dad lives in London. Mom lives in Snarøya with a new man.”

And Noora seemed…. surprised by that. A bit angry too, but not at him. Was she.. was she angry at his parents for him living alone? 

“So you live here alone?”

Yes, he did. And he liked that.

“More or less.” was his answer instead. Not that he had the intention to sound vague. But if he wanted Noora to stick around then maybe he shouldn’t emphasize that this place was mainly a place for him to not have to bother with other people, unless on party nights like these.

He wondered what she would say about that. But instead she moved on from the subject. Or maybe not. Maybe asking if he had siblings was her asking if there was at least someone who checked up on him.

And well, no there wasn’t. Nobody he welcomed with open arms at least.

William sighed and looked down at the two glasses, one that Noora had refused because apparently she didn’t drink, shocker.

“My brother studies in Stockholm.” And I don’t have any intentions on talking about him, and I’m planning on being a good host this evening so…

“Do you want anything else?”

And William should have known his supermarket-bought chocolate milk from last week would come to haunt him because now she asked for it again and he had no idea if he could make it.

He did note the fact that she at least remembered, and smiled at her.

“Chocolate milk. Coming up.” He said, confidently reaching for the package of baking cocoa he knew he had in the pantry. Something the lady had told him was okay, so yeah, that’s as much as he knew about it.

He should probably read the packaging.

“Dark cacao drink. Extra dark and powerful cocoa.”

He looked up and saw Noora smile. And he wanted to take another sip of his drink but he didn’t. But he wanted to. Because fucking hell, who knew that all it took for Noora to genuinely smile at him was cocoa.

“Five tablespoons of Freia baking cocoa. 4 to 5 tablespoons of sugar.”

Noora was humming, teasing him, and then she busted him.

“Don’t you remember how to make it?” she said, clearly suggesting last friday. 

“I do. I do. But I just want to do it right.” William said, lying to keep some of his dignity intact. He frowned at the failed attempt when Noora just raised an eyebrow at him from her seat on the kitchen counter.

Which was right next to the cutlery drawer, and right in front of the sugar package. Which William could have mentioned he was going to grab. But the fact that Noora paused her breath and the fact that she stopped swinging her legs at his proximity, was enough reason for him not too.

It was almost as if he had her flustered. 

And with any other girl that would be all the sign he needed to move in and finish the deal.

But not for Noora. No. Noora wanted cocoa. So he was going to make her cocoa, and he was going to focus on it so it wouldn’t get ruined.

He studied the packaging thoroughly, not looking at her directly as she bit her lip. He kept studying it, twisting it around in his hands, letting a comfortable silence fall over them.

“Has Eskild called?” Noora then asked, tilting her head slightly, and William looked down, almost having forgotten that there was a big condition to every minute that Noora spend at his apartment.

So when he pulled out his phone he was glad to see the screen not showing any missed calls, and he went to hand over the phone to Noora because part of him said she wouldn’t believe it.

Lucky for him, or more so for Noora, the distraction wasn’t enough to make him ruin the cocoa entirely, but it was enough for it to boil over a bit.

He then looked aside when he heard the sound of her laughter and he shook his head. 

Of course she was laughing at him.

**NOORA**

At least the cocoa tasted good. There was no burn flavour to it and the only thing that got ruined was William’s ego, which was probably why he sat out of the windowsill, pondering. Smoking.

But she didn’t miss how he followed her as she moved through the room. As she paused to look up at the high walls and the way that the violet lightning was illuminating them in a pretty way.

Then Noora stumbled upon a box, and for a split second she considered not including it in the teasing she had been doing since the kitchen, but then again why not. He had made her cocoa. She could be fun. Be teasing, for a little bit.

“Oh my god, seriously? A penetrator sweater. Can I have it?”  She put it on her shoulders and posed with it, earning a grin from William which she only caught a glimpse of as she continued her groupie-speech about how the sweater was so special.

“It’s the sweaters of all sweaters. Many people have acquired it at the school. Insanely popular.” Noora said, now dropping the sweater again. 

“Then I would’ve been just like you. That’s the dream, huh?”

And something about that sentence apparently made William’s laugh, caused by embarrassment Noora knew for sure, faltered. And he just looked at her. As if she struck a nerve.

Coincidentally, as that thought roamed through her head she noticed the guitar next to the couch and for once in between now and the 5 years since her last guitar lesson, her fingers itched a little to play it.

Could she? Could she manage to make a final blow to William’s ego?

Well she was going to try. The night had turned from damage control to her having a shot at keeping William away from herself and Vilde all-together, and she wasn’t going to miss that opportunity.

“Have we really come to this point? A guitar? Oh well, then there’s nothing missing anymore.” Noora said, a playful smile on her face. A smile similar to the smile she knew many girls  must have had as he started serenading them. To ultimately get them to sleep with him, which was always the endgame for a guy like William.

But now she was going to reverse the roles. Make him see the ridicule of the situation. And somehow William seemed to be on board with that plan, throwing out his cigarette outside.

“So what do you play for them?” Noora asked, taking the guitar and walking to the couch. “You have to play something good for them, right? I mean you have to win them over.”

“I don’t play.” William stated, though there was a smile on his lips so yes, he did play. Noora was starting to read him like a book. She was finally getting some control over the situation, over his advances at her and everything.

She hit the strings and laughed a little. Good. It had sound. Now she could blow him away. It was just a matter of doing it the right way. And her choice of music was going to do that.

“Is it country?” Noora asked teasingly, before she placed the tips of her fingers and started playing one of the first country songs that came to mind that she knew how to play.

She finished off with a final string before smiling as William, relentless on her mission to tease him for the remainder of the night. Because that was what this was. Noora teasing him.

The way he smiled at her was in no way admiration. By now he had to be embarrassed and sick of it. Of her. 

 

Noora decided to double down on it, creating the thought that maybe she was doing to him exactly what he always did to those girls. Maybe she was unconsciously showing him a talent of hers that would only make him more infatuated with her. 

She ended the second song as that thought came through and she paused for a moment, before she put up another teasing smile. A little less strong now through, realizing the danger of the sitatuin, the trap she created for herself. But she had to finish this now. With a banger of a cliché song.

“Now I now. Now I know what you play.” she said. “Other than girls.” she added.

Her fingers found the chords she needed easily, the melody bringing her back to a time that her parents still remembered the color of her eyes and they would sing to it together. A song that was, just like the guy sitting across from her, way older than she was. But she loved it.

Loved it’s message.

And that’s when her own nostalgia had betrayed her. That’s when she realized what she was singing. And why she was singing it. As she looked at him, and her smile faltered a bit at the way he was looking at her. Staring at her.

A gaze she could only escape by looking down to the strings, realizing she brought this upon herself.

“ _ What would you do, if my heart was torn in two? Then you could make things real just by saying I love you. _ ” she sang in that moment, eyes disconnected because she could not let him know she was enjoying this, enjoying spending time in the same room as him. This was doing things to her that she couldn’t let William notice a single hint of in the way she was looking. 

She finished the song roughly, interrupted by the buzzing of William’s phone which was enough to ground her back to the situation at hand. 

“Yeah hello? Where are you?”

Eskild was home apparently, and so Noora explained what had happened with Eva having her phone and keys. But then he said he was home and that she could go back and why did she feel sad about that?

Why did she suddenly express a mild “Oh… yeah.” at the prospect of her just going to the kollektiv and being buzzed in by Eskild and that would be the end of the night.

“Yeah no, don’t worry. I’m staying at a friends. It’s okay. Okay bye.” Noora replied, handing the phone back to William.

Who looked at her expectantly. With a hint of hope in his eyes, if that was what she was reading on him. Was he hoping she would stay? Would she?

“No. No, he is in the city with some people.” Noora said when William asked about it. She didn’t even have an angel/demon, pro/cons situation in her head. Somehow she said no, which meant she said yes to staying. 

Which apparently pleased William because now he was smiling at her from across the couch.

And Noora bit her lip, and looked down, and tried to not be mad at herself. That could wait until tomorrow.

**NOORA**

As william made the bed, Noora told herself that she could not let him see how much he affected her. She had to get back to where she was early in the night. She couldn’t let the moment with the guitar ruin the plan. And so when he suggested he took the couch, she knew there was a crossroads. 

She could let him take the couch. As much of a cliché as it was, it was the easy solution. She wouldn’t have to face William for the rest of the evening, and there would be no… situation from them sharing a bed.

Then she could also take the hard way. Which was denying that sleeping in the same bed as William made Noora feel something. She could deny that, and pretend that she was so unbothered by him that she was fine with sharing his bed, platonically.

She could pretend she was fine with it. Even if she wasn’t, because her brain was telling her that if she shared a bed with a guy like William there would be a situation. Just like her starting to sing a song was a situation. 

The decision got made as she spoke out the words that allowed him to stay. She was going to take the hard road. Because that was the only way to kill the feeling in her stomach. She had to prove to him, and herself, that she would be able to handle this. 

So she moved to the bed, picking the right side, and then she froze again. Because she realized she hadn’t thought through that she would actually be sleeping, which one usually didn’t do fully clothed, as was evident by William who took off his clothes.

She disregarded the fact that it took her a few seconds to announce that she would be sleeping in her own clothes, which only got a chuckle from William in return.

Then she got into the bed, realizing the situation might not be too weird seeing as William’s bed was spacious. And if she created enough space between them, she might be able to pretend that he wasn’t there at all. This would be fine, she concluded.

“I’m going to put those here.” She said taking the excess pillows and putting them in the middle of the bed. 

**WILLIAM**

William just hummed, agreeing with whatever Noora decided to do, knowing that she was doing it just to ease her own mind. That she was doing damage control, much like earlier tonight. Except now she was doing damage control over her own actions. And William noticed.

And he wouldn’t push her either. He knew that her staying here (and the facade she put up pretending that it wasn’t a big deal) was already a big step in the right direction. She was softening up to him, even if she was trying to deny it.

He could even swear he saw a hint of a smile when she finished building her little border between them. And William really wanted to comment on her smile, make her smile more, but he knew he shouldn't.

So he stuck to his side of the bed, and just watched her as she turned her back to him. He was fully expecting her not to acknowledge him for the rest of the evening, and he was actually fine with that. He didn’t feel the need to move over to her side of the bed, invade her space. So he took out his phone and started scrolling through instagram,when he received a message on his phone. A message from Eskild.

“You told him you were staying over with a friend?” William asked amused, and he saw Noora’s shoulders shift, moving her face even further away from him as she scrunched up her nose. William smiled at that, and looked over at her again after he put down his phone. 

“Soon you will be typing boyfriend.” he said.

Noora huffed a little. “No, I won’t.”

William knew she would though. A few minutes went by, although it could have been half an hour with how quiet the room was, William just continuing the scrolling through instagram on his phone. Then, Noora’s voice echoed through the room again.

“You know you’re the biggest cliché I have ever met.” she said. William smiled, not able to see her face but knowing she was still trying to convince herself that things weren’t the way they were. So William countered with what he knew would make her smile.

“Well, I was never validated as a child. Mom never came to graduation. Dad never complimented my drawings.” he said.

That turned Noora silent, and William heard her sigh deeply. And he realized that maybe he shouldn’t have said those things. Reminded her of a time where there was no spark between them. Because now she was trying to figure out a position in the bed, forcing herself to try and get to sleep.

William concluded that if she was trying this hard to deny it, then there had to be something to it and with a content smile on his face he settled himself in the pillows too. “You like me.” he said softly, so soft he didn’t think she would even hear, after a couple of minutes. She could be asleep already for all he knew.

But then she spoke again: “Natta Wilhelm.”

And this girl… this girl was doing things to him. 

“Natta Noora.” He said leaning over and switching off the bedside lamp. 

**

The next morning, William was greeted with a made-up bed on the side where Noora slept last night, every trace of her gone except maybe the faint smell of her on the pillow, but it was faint at best. Yet it was enough to conjure up a smile to his face as he walked to the kitchen, knowing last night had been progress, even if it was only a little bit. He had seen a softer side of hers once again, seeing her sing and get emotional with the song in a way that she had never been emotional in front of him before.

He then poured himself some water and sat around in the kitchen, reading through his messages which included many suggestive emoji’s from Chris. William decided to call him, so they could arrange the cabin trip too.

“Halla playboy.” sounded from the other side of the phone. “So you finally got to bang her, congratulations.”

“Chris, calm down. I didn’t sleep with her. She just stayed the night.”

Chris was quiet on the other side of the line, probably figuring out how that was even a possibility.

“Wait, you mean you got her all to yourself and you ended up on your couch?”

William rolled his eyes at that. But at least Chris was right to conclude that William wouldn’t sleep in the other room, the one where his brother had stayed before.

“No, she did agree to just share the bed.” William explained. That caused Chris to grin. 

“Ah, okay. Well then you’re still good bro. I mean at least you got to see her without clothes on.”

“Nope. She kept those on too.” William said, refilling his glass of water now.

“Damn, this girl really is something man. I mean what’s with all the mixed signals? Sure, I’ll share a bed with you but I’m keeping my clothes on. Does she even know what she wants?” Chris asked. 

William wasn’t sure of that. The one thing he was sure of was the fact that something had happened last night, just not the type of thing that Chris was alluding to.

“Can we just talk about the cabin trip? Like, what time are you guys getting here?”

“Dude, I’m already on my way. I left the minute you called.”

And so Chris showed up 12 minutes later and they made final arrangements for the cabin trip during the easter holiday, like how they would distribute the food and beer in between the different cars and who would get to ride shotgun where. Eventually William ended up driving with Chris shotgun in his car, Penetrator Eirik and Jacob in the backseat.

The guys were just chilling, talking about their conquests of the night before when Chris went into a 6 minute rant about the threesome he had, and William grinned. “Honestly though, you lowered your standards for that threesome. Those girls weren’t even that hot.” He commented, and to that Chris grinned. 

“Well I asked Noora to join, but she didn’t want to.” he said in a teasing tone, to which William looked aside and he gave Chris a warning look.

Chris caught it, and he rolled his eyes at the dramatics William was putting up to defend his girl and their secret ‘thing’, so he resorted to talk about the first year guys that showed up and caused shit.

“Ah yeah, I saw that.” Jacob replied, and Eirik went on to look them up on social media because ‘isn’t one of those guys the little brother of that Yakuza guy? The blonde one?”

“The Yakuza?” Chris asked. William looked up, frowning. “There was Yakuza at the party?” he asked.

Jacob shrugged, looking over at Eirik’s phone. “Faen, yes, Eirik is right. They have the same last name, and they actually look alike. Faen, what do they think they’re doing.”

“When we get back to Oslo we need to set the record straight.” Chris said, and William nodded in agreement.

“But how? They outnumber us? And they will never want to meet with us anyways.”

“Maybe they will if we bring in someone else.” Chris said, then taking out his phone. “These first years. Isak and Jonas. They’ve been getting beaten up by them. I saw it on snapchat.”

So when they all gathered at the cabin they agreed to work together to end the Yakuza guys, and then they kicked off easter holidays with a wild party. For a week, he had to put Noora and what happened after the party out of his mind, to avoid any of the guys finding out about anything, and he had to update Chris on the plan to keep the whole thing a secret too. 

But William wouldn’t be William if one afternoon he sat on the couch and sent her a message anyways. Because that’s what she did to him now. She made him do things he knew better not to, but he couldn’t help it.


	5. Paradise

###  **NOORA**

Noora had the best time hanging out with the girls at the cabin. And she wasn’t even thàt mad at Eskild for giving her clothes to charity. Noora did stuff like that anyways. When she came back from Madrid she left half the clothes she owned there, donating it to charity too. 

What was however annoying about the whole charity stuff, was that it wasn’t enough to distract her from the mess with William. From how she had let him get under her skin.

To add to it, Eva brought it up while they were hanging out and Noora really didn’t need any more incentive for her brain to conjure up this weird dream of her and William in a helicopter, like it had done last night. “Eva, there is no me and William.” Noora clarified. And maybe she stated that a little bit too much, because Eva’s look showed that she was surprised by Noora’s defensive tone.

Luckily Eva didn’t continue on any of the teasing, which she probably would have had she known that William had texted Noora several times during the trip. The trip which reminded Noora she had to send Vilde a recipe when she got back home. Vilde who, as Eva mentioned, would be totally shocked if she knew anything. “Good thing she is no longer obsessed with him though. It’s good she moved on. Right? I mean… Nobody wants to spend their entire highschool life crushing on someone who trashes cabins during easter break…”

Noora frowned at that and shook her head. “What?”

“Yeah, they trashed the cabin so they’re doing a party. A fundraiser type of thing.” Eva explained, then pausing the rummaging through her closet to take her tablet and show Noora the page. “They have to raise 300K kroner. Which they plan to do by selling sweaters and having a hook-up action.” Eva explained. Noora leaned over to read, not missing the part where it said a hookup with William was 1000 kroner.

“So they’re having a charity party on Friday.”

Noora huffed and took the tablet from Eva. “Well this is just… this is like, prostitution or something.”

Eva looked at Noora and shrugged. “I think they stopped caring about that the minute they named themselves ‘the penetrators’.”

**

Of course by Noora’s luck the entire school talked about the party during the week, and on Wednesday she just walked past a group of girls speculating about the hook-up auction when she got to her locker. With an eyeroll she typed in her code and took out her books.

Then she looked up when she heard giggling from the other side of the hallway, and she sighed when she saw Jonas and Isabelle which was a situation all on it’s own because apparently they were dating, according to William. Not that she was going to use ‘according to William’ from now on though, because the next time she saw him she was going to make it clear to him that he had to stop with whatever game h thought they were playing.

What she didn’t expect was for that time to be minutes later, as William appeared behind her and Noora turned around after he whispered in her ear. It only took her a short while to compose herself, and she was proud of that. She had no room for mistakes like the sleepover, and she had to set the record straight. And then she had to focus on Eva, who would get her heart broken all over again if she saw Jonas with anyone else.

###  **WILLIAM**

“Lovely to see you. Did you have a nice easter break?”

Noora crossed her arms and raised a judgmental eyebrow at him but William just smiled. 

“Eh yeah, sure. Heard that yours was more eventful though. I saw your event on facebook. So charming.”

“Does that mean you will be there?” William asked. He then tilted his head and smiled. “Promise, I will personally make sure you get home safe to your own bed this time.”

And for a moment he saw the look in her eyes, thinking back to that night, and he tilted his head a little trying to figure out what the look meant, but he would take it as a win that she was taking a moment to compose herself from him mentioning it. Then she cleared her throat. “Yeah well that… That was an emergency. Don’t get used to it.”

William looked at her and nodded, in the back of his mind he was now making a list of the times he was able to pierce through to her a little bit. And he wished he didn’t have to. Wished she would just admit to herself that she wasn’t unbothered by this. At least in her subconscious she had called him a friend, so he decided to go with that. “Okay. Sure. I still need to get used to you actually calling me a friend first anyways.” He added. 

Noora looked at him and shook her head, which only caused William to smirk more. “Well either way, that event of yours is the dumbest thing I’ve heard in my life. So no, I’m not going. I mean, hook-up auction? Seriously? That’s illegal. It’s prostitution.”

“Someone has been studying law in her pastime.” William joked. Then he looked at her and smiled. “It’s okay though. I won’t hook up with anyone else. So you can stop being jealous.”

Noora looked at him and frowned. “I’m not jealous. I just think the entire event is horrible. Europe is in a state of emergency with the refugees. People are dying of hunger, and you guys are trashing a cabin for 300K kroner. If you don’t know how horrible that is, well, then….”

She then closed her locker and looked at him once more before she walked away from him. And William just chuckled, leaning against the locker until she was out of his view, not missing how she looked over at him as she walked around the corner.

**

Next day, Noora remembered to bring lunch for Vilde, and she planned to get Eva to talk to Jonas before she would find out any other way than directly from him. Worst case scenario being that she heard it this weekend, which in Eva’s case would include alcohol and that was just a disaster waiting to happen. But Noora was going to prevent that. 

This weekend was going to be great. She only had to convince the other girls that the Penetrator party was stupid, and then she would have the weekend free of William’s charming smile and.. fuck, she was drifting.

“Hi.” She said, sitting down at the girls table at lunch, and she took out the food she prepared for Vilde. Which Vilde thanked her for by suggesting exactly what Noora wanted to avoid, which was that the girls would go to the penetrator party. “Out of solidarity. We could give some of our russ budget to them.” She suggested. 

It made Noora exchange a look with Eva, because Vilde was supposed to be over William. Now she was planning on participating in the hook-up auction, and Noora blinked a few times to make sure she heard it right. 

“Vilde…. What world do you live in?” she asked. She sighed and decided to use the same thing she told William to tell Vilde. Maybe one of them would at least get it. “Vilde, you know that millions of refugees are starving? The penetrators are not a good cause. There a bunch of asshole kids who got drunk and trashed a cabin.” 

Vilde pouted, and Noora know she went a bit over the top with the subject but she had to make Vilde understand. Because this was all for Vilde’s sake. She was absolutely just listing up reasons for Vilde’s sake now, as to why they shouldn’t go to the party. She was avoiding Vilde to do something she would regret at the party. And if those reasons happened to stay on the front of Noora’s mind for the rest of the weekend, that wouldn’t hurt.

“It’s a social event, Noora. The whole school will be there, it’s social. Being social will help the refugees more than sitting at home being sad.” Vilde said. Noora sighed, again.

“Vilde, what would help the refugees is if you channeled some of the energy you spend on William’s russebus, on charities that improve the refugees lives.”

“So no hook-up auction?” Vilde asked, and Noora shook her head easily. Then, Vilde asked about the party, but Sana beat her to it. “Of course we’re going to the party.”

And Noora couldn’t object. She tried, but the girls were intent on going and after what she just told Vilde she couldn’t go up against them. She picked her battle, and she lost. “Okay, fine. We will go to the party.” Noora sighed.

Later that afternoon she was supposed to hang out with Eva but she cancelled so she found herself on the couch in the living room, scrolling through instagram. That is when her phone beeped, and she read a message from none other than William, to add to the drama of what was supposed to be a nice evening

‘Since it’s so important to you, I’ve decided we’ll donate 10% of the funds to the refugees. I hope you’ll have fun at the party.’

Noora frowned and typed her reply. ‘The other girls are going. I’m not.’

William started typing right away, and Noora threw her phone in her lap, rolling her eyes when she read his reply.

‘40% and I’ll drop the fact that you called me your friend…’

Noora sighed, and caught herself wanting to roll her eyes before realizing there was nobody around for her to express her disliking of William to. And just like that, she allowed herself to smile a little bit, knowing that the friend thing was a joke he was making. 

‘Deal, if you stay away from Vilde at the party.’

‘As long as you’re not telling me to stay away from you. Because you’ve already won the hook-up auction. So you don’t have to be jealous either.’

 

‘I’m not jealous and I’m not joining the auction.’

‘Think about the refugees… See you Friday Noora.’

Noora bit her lip and looked out of the window for a little bit, realizing the fact that nobody, but especially Vilde, would hook up with William. That he somehow cared enough to give up that part of his persona. And if it was about refugees or not, to Noora it was significant enough. 

It was enough for her to be willing to give him a chance, and when she was walking up to the penetrator party that weekend she did it with as much of an open mind as she could conjure up. She told herself that if it came down to it, she might try not to resist.

Then she saw Jonas and Isabelle, and she pulled Eva back a little, watching the other girls head inside the venue. And yes, the thought of Vilde’s reaction to Noora giving William a chance entered her mind. And things could be as bad as the look on Eva’s face when Noora told her about Jonas and Isabelle. But Noora hoped it wouldn’t. Hoped Vilde was over William enough to whatever could happen tonight, wouldn’t hurt her.

And things started off great. Vilde and the other girls were having fun, paying little attention to the boys around them. But Eva was, and Noora had to stick by her and make sure she would be okay. Because she knew Eva wasn’t okay, even though she tried to pretend she was.

“Let’s just sit right here, Eva.” Noora said, picking a spot for them to sit while Eva hugged her bottle of wine. She was talking about Jonas and Isabelle, and Noora sighed, looking around the party for a little bit, trying to figure out if there were many people, people they knew.

That’s when she spotted them. That’s when she noticed William and a blonde girl sitting at the other side of the room, talking to one another. And Noora closed her eyes for a few seconds for how she was hurt by the sight of it. But why was she hurt. By all means, there was nothing she should be hurt over. So, William apparently found a new girl to obsess over. That was a good thing, right?

Noora looked up at Eva and followed her line of sight when she mentioned how pretty Isabelle was, and she blinked a few times before she shook her head, telling Eva that she shouldn’t think like that. And for a moment she felt light, except the thought dawned on her that the girl William talked to was also pretty. And then Vilde showed up and mentioned the hook up auction and fuck. Apparently whoever won the hook-up auction with William paid 3000 kroner. And when Noora looked up, William and the girl were gone.

He wasn’t anywhere in the room either, and for a second Noora wondered what she should do but then Eva got up and she knew that what she should do was focus on not making Eva do something she might regret. So when she fell in front of Jonas and Isabelle, Noora was there to pick her up and take her away from them, relieved when they bumped into Isak, allowing Noora to scan the room for William once more.

That’s when she noticed him, across the room, not hooking up with a girl and Noora breathed out deeply. She glanced over at Eva and Isak once more, frowning a little when Eva talked to Isak about liking boys and then Noora knew, looking at Isak’s face, that she had to get Eva out of there again so she did, apologizing to Isak while she walked with Eva over to the bar. 

“Vilde, can you take care of Eva? She needs water.” She said, vaguely registering penetrator Chris was right there, as she looked over to make sure William was still where he last saw him.

###  **WILLIAM**

William felt someone hitting his shoulder and when he saw Noora he couldn’t help but smile a little. He had seen her earlier, so he knew she was around and hadn’t ditched on the party. But he didn’t entirely expect her to approach him, so this was knew. 

And she was also pissed, or pretending to be so, which was not knew.

“What is this stuff about the announcement of the hook up auction?”

“Noora, you know you have no reason to worry about that.”

“I do. Because knowing you, you’ve gone around telling people bullshit.”

“Bullshit? Like what, that we’re friends?” He smiled. He couldn’t help it, knowing it would cause a reaction out of her. And sure enough, she smiled too, which then made William take a deep sigh.

“Look, you just have to relax. Have a little faith in me.”

“Faith?” Noora asked him in a small voice, and William didn’t fail to notice how the next question she asked came out serious. Like it was about more than just the hook-up auction. “Why should I have faith in you?”

“Because I care.” William replied, leaning a little bit closer in a move that he would be able to play off as due to the music. He stepped away from his friends but he didn’t care about that. Not if it meant he had a chance of convincing Noora that he was serious. That he actually cared.

He could have joked about it, say that he cared enough to donate part of the money to the refugees. But he didn’t want to joke about what he felt about her. Surprisingly enough, however, it was Noora who brought up the refugees anyways.

“You care? Like the refugees? No… you don’t care about them for real.” Noora said, shaking her head. “It’s all just fake.” Noora added, blinking a few times and looking up at him. 

William looked at her and slowly shook his head, leaning a little bit closer again.

“It’s not. I care. I care about you. For real.”

And the way Noora looked away made William nervous. He feared he had pushed her away, given her a reason to go back to hating him, instead of asking him for a reason to trust him. And William’s fear came true.

“No, you don’t. If you really cared you wouldn’t have pressured me to come to the party like this.”

And so he sighed deeply, looking behind him to where the boys were, knowing that this was probably the final chance he would have with Noora, and it seemed like he blew it. 

“You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to, Noora.” he replied, stepping away again and giving her the space she was apparently wanting to put in between them. “The refugees will get their money.” he added, just in case she would doubt about that.

He was fully willing to let her go at this point. He wasn’t like his brother. He wouldn’t bother people who didn’t want him around. Wouldn’t stay in their lives when they clearly wanted him out of it.

At least, that’s what William thought.

“Yeah but I have to be here. I have to watch Eva, so she doesn’t do something stupid.”

And William remembered Eva. Chris’ little obsession, who he last saw across the room and jup, she was still there. Making out with Vilde, of all people. “How do you think that’s going?”

William watched Noora turn around towards her friends, and saw the look on her face when she realized she had ran out of excuses. He waited until she turned around, deciding he would give things one more shot. Give Noora one more shot to decide that she did like him.

“Aren’t you tired of this game soon?”

“What game?”

“Pretending as if you don’t like me?”

“That’s not a game.” Noora replied. “I’m not reptending.” she added, but her eyes spoke differently, and William looked across the room for a bit, before settling on an idea.

“Okay, this is what we’ll do. Look into my eyes and tell me you don’t like me.”

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard.”

Yet she couldn’t look at him. From the moment he said it, she couldn’t look at him, and William needed her to.

“Look at me.” and she did.

“Say you don’t like me, and I’m gone. I swear.”

And she looked at him. Looked at him for what felt like an eternity, and he watched her mind think it over. Watcher her mind think of all the possibilities, all the options she had. And the fact that she was even considering an answer, was what made William step a bit closer again. 

And maybe he shouldn’t have. Because Noora watched him move closer, looked at him up and down, and then she took a deep breath, looking him in the eyes again.

“I don’t like you.”

And William had wondered all his life how people could just run away from the truth. He had been lied to his face like that before. But never did he expect Noora to lie to do this. To lie to herself like that, about something they both knew was there.

So he walked away. He walked past her and left the room.

###  **NOORA**

And by all means Noora should feel relief. She should feel like she was finally free of William, like she had been able to tell him the thing she had wanted to say.

Instead, she felt like she made a mistake the minute she spoke. She felt like she had said the opposite of what she wanted to say, the opposite of what she intended to do when she came to the party. She was going to give him a chance. She was going to try. He had given her what she wanted.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds, realizing that maybe a few weeks ago, she would have been able to say that she didn’t like him and it would have been the truth. But it wasn’t. And right now, saying that, felt like the biggest mistake she made. 

Moments later she found herself putting on her coat and heading outside, her brain reminding her of the last few weeks and how William had tried really hard to show her a different side of him. How he had never been shallow and a fuckboy when it came to advances towards her. How he apologized to Vilde. How he remembered the small thing, how he used jokes as little compliments, like the Spanish stuff. How he always seemed to be willing to give her the space, even though he was a pretty insistent guy. He had been totally different to her than he was with anyone else. And that was what confused her so much. That was what made her push him away so much, the other side of him. 

And that’s what didn’t give him the right to be pissed at her.

When he turned around, Noora had caught up with him to halfway to the bridge.

“I’m not pissed at you.” He replied, and Noora sighed deeply, realizing she was going to say these things know.

“I was just… I was just trying to do what I had to do. Because what you were doing was shit. And for the longest time I tried to convince myself that you were that guy. But you’re not, aren’t you. You’re not that selfish, manipulating and self-involved guy that I was trying really hard to protect myself from. Because that guy I don’t like.” Noora sighed. Then she closed her jacket a bit more, as if to physically make herself more vulnerable by protecting herself from the wind and the cold, but truthfully it was her heart that was vulnerable and out in the open here.

And for a while there was just silence, until William tucked his hands in his pockets, looking at her. “Was that all?”

And no. It wasn’t all. Because that wasn’t all there was to William Magnusson. And Noora knew that now. He knew that deep down he wasn’t like that. And she knew that admitting she liked thàt guy, the guy with the jokes and with the teasing. The guy who wanted to do what she wanted, who despite being really keen on her never forced her into everything… That guy was the guy that she was walking towards to.

That guy was the guy whose lips touched hers. That was the guy smiling back at her, the gaze he gave her, the ‘finally’ she felt in her bones as she felt his arms around her. That was the guy that yes, she liked. She liked William Magnusson.


	6. Marry you

**WILLIAM**

“Come back to my place.” William said once they broke the kiss. “I don’t want to have sex just… come back to my place…” He added, knowing Noora might think that was his plan. But he had decided that Noora wasn’t like that a while ago, and now that he finally got her to show in some way that she did like him, he wasn’t going to fuck it up by letting her draw conclusions. 

He then looked around, checking if anyone was around before pressing another kiss to Noora’s lips, because god damn he could kiss those lips all day.

“I can’t.” Noora sighed, looking up at him with defeated eyes. “This… this is… this is a lot. And my friends are inside. And I need to go back to them, I need to.”

William silenced her with another kiss, and Noora smiled through it, pushing him away slowly but reluctantly. “William.”

“Okay.” He eventually said, letting go of her himself now, and Noora nodded at him. “Just… I need to hear you say it.” He looked into her eyes and he made it clear that he wasn’t going to leave until he heard it from her directly.

Noora looked up and smiled again, because William Magnusson needing validation from anyone was certainly new. She bit her lip and reached out for his hand. Then she looked him in the eyes and smiled. “I like you.” 

She walked away moments later, heading back into the party, and William just stood outside. A few minutes passed until his phone beeped, and he smiled when he saw the text message.

‘You win’

You lose. You win. 

He had won, yes. If Noora Amalie Sætre was a prize, then he had won. But she wasn’t. She was more than some girl he conquered. That kiss was more than any kiss with anyone tonight could have been. It was more. It was a promise. A promise that they might be together. That William might get to hold her again. Kiss her again. And yes, that made him the luckiest guy in Oslo. So yeah, maybe he won. But watching her leave still felt like he lost.

And so he decided not to return to the party. He would let the people there think he went home with the girl that paid 3000 kroner to hook up with him, and he was fine with that. He wasn’t sure if Noora was fine with that, but since there was no girl but her, he was certain she would be fine with it eventually.

So he took a drive. He drove through Oslo for a good 40 minutes, recalling some of the streetlights where he had passed on his date with Noora, when he had glanced over at her. It made him think. Made him realize that for whatever reason she decided to kiss him tonight, it wasn’t because of how great he treated her friend. It wasn’t because of how charitable their russebuss was, and it wasn’t because of his guitar skills.

‘Think we both know that’s not true. You’re not something to win. You’re more than that. Meet me tomorrow, so we can talk? My place, 3PM?’ He pressed sent when he closed his front door behind him. Then he walked to the kitchen and uncapped a beer, getting rid of his jacket and brushing his hand through his hair. He leaned against the counter, remembering the night Noora stayed over and the banter they shared back then, and he couldn’t hold back a smile. It truly was more than words...

###  **NOORA**

Noora watched as the door opened and William appeared and she took him in, looking him up and down. Grey sweater, dark grey sweatpants and a mug of hot cocoa in his hands. “Hi.”

Noora blinked and looked up, and then she smiled. By all means she had expected the other William to open the door. The one that cared about the reputation of his russebus, the first class Nissen fuckboy. This… this was not what she expected. “Hi.”

“I made you hot cocoa.” William smiled, and Noora took off her coat before she took the mug, taking a few sips right away as she followed him to the couch, where apparently he was watching a movie. Noora sat down with a small frown on her face, and William raised an eyebrow at her.

“It’s not good?”

Noora looked down at the hot chocolate and shook her head. “No, no it’s not… It’s not the hot chocolate.” She said, putting down the mug on the coffeetable. She then turned towards him. “It’s you.”

And William just smiled. He bent his head forward a little, shaking his head smiling, and then he looked back up. He reached out his hand and softly touched Noora’s cheek. “You’re not impressed?”

“Am I supposed to be impressed?” Noora asked, the question serious. “Is this some sort of… impression you’re trying to give me?”

And William sighed but he had to have seen this coming. It was obvious she wasn’t going to be vulnerable so soon,kiss or no kiss.

“No, Noora. This is just me, waiting for us to talk about… us. Waiting to tell you that everything I said was true. That I care about you. And that I want to be with you. Properly. But that I will need your help with that, because I have no idea what that’s like. A relationship. But for you… for you I can try.”

And that, well… that left Noora a bit speechless.

“You want to be with me? You want…. I mean…”

“Yes, Noora. I want to be with you. Just you, okay. There won’t be anyone else. No hook-up auctions, no russestuff.”

And she couldn’t hide the smile on her face, so she decided to look anywhere but at him. “Yeah but…. I mean, I don’t know.” She said in a teasing tone. William looked at her and Noora smiled more. “I don’t know if I can be with a guy who can’t form the preterito perfecto.” Noora grinned.

And in that moment William reached forward and kissed her, and Noora couldn’t do anything else but to let him, wrapping her hands around his neck and kissing him back.

They did that for just a solid few minutes, until William broke the kiss apart, fixing that hair of his and it reminded Noora of the conditions that she had. 

“I’m not going to learn Spanish to impress you. Anything else, but not that.” William said.

“Can you donate the money to the refugees?” Noora asked with a playful smile, and William rolled his eyes, called her unbelievable, and then kissed her again. “Already done.”

“Good.” Noora nodded, reaching out and taking his hand. And they just sat like that for a while. Noora drank her hot chocolate, and William watched. 

Then, after another fifteen minutes had passed and William had washed off the mug, he returned to the couch and Noora looked up from where she had continued the movie by herself, but William paused it again.

“Noora…. I need you to tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“Tell me why you kissed me, last night. Why you said you didn’t like me and then, moments later, you kissed me. What changed? What… what made this happen, after all this time?”

And considering how conflicted Noora felt herself, still, she wasn’t surprised William questioned it all. She had been expecting this question. And as a result, she had been thinking about it for most of the night. 

Reconnecting their hands, intertwining their fingers, Noora started speaking softly. “I said that I didn’t like you because I wanted it to be true. Because a few weeks ago, it was still true. And what changed in between then and now was that I saw a different side of you. A softer side of you. And that’s who I realized was walking away from me. I knew you meant it, when you said you cared. But part of me was afraid. Afraid of what that meant, afraid of what it would mean if you weren’t playing a game anymore.”

“It means that I like you, Noora.” William said, and Noora closed her eyes for a moment, smiling. “I know that.” she then said in a funny voice. “Point is… I had to reconcile the guy that broke my friend’s heart with the guy that was making my stomach flutter.”

“Your stomach fluttered?” William teased her, and Noora swatted his hands away from where he was obviously going to tickle her. She couldn’t have this turn into anything but a serious conversation. The conversation they had to have.

“Yes. Which means that I like you too. And I want us to be together, too.”

And that was the truest thing among all the other things she had said that afternoon, and it was still true in the days after when they would hang out and watch a movie, or exchanged looks in the hallways. They had agreed nobody at school should know, not even Chris should know, because William promised Noora that things were going to change. He promised her that he wanted their relationship to be real, and that he didn’t want other people to know about it thinking he somehow conquered her.

So they met up at William’s place, at KB once before going on a trip out of the city. And more at William’s place. However what never happened was Noora staying over. Not since that one night a few weeks ago. Yet on the morning of April 18th, after a little over two weeks of the two of them being together, Noora found herself in William’s bed once again.

###  **WILLIAM**

“Are you looking at me while I’m sleeping?” William asked. His eyes were still closed, but he had been awake for a few minutes now, noticing how Noora’s breathing suggested the same thing.

But of course she denied it. And the way she closed her eyes when he looked at her for a moment was simply too adorable for him not to smile at. He figured he could tease her about it, then.

“Noora Amalie Sætre, now you have to be careful. Because you’re going to be so damn in love with me.”

And she may claim that she wasn’t, but William was quick to pull her closer to him because yes, he knew she was. “Look at you. You’re in my bed, hardly have any clothes on…”

“But I do. And they’re staying on.” Noora said and William wrapped his arm around her. That’s when Noora decided to double down. “I told you I won’t have sex before I’m married right.”

William rolled his eyes a little, chuckling against Noora’s hair while she laughed stating it was absolutely true. But two could play this game.

“Okay, then we’re going to get married.” he said. And when Noora turned silent a bit, he opened his eyes to look at her. “I’m serious.”

Noora smiled at that, turning a little bit towards him in the bed. “I can’t get married with someone who doesn’t know how to write the word quesadilla.”

William groaned and tightened his grip on her. “Stop that. I told you it was a typo.”

But Noora kept laughing, and William sighed, playfully pushing her away from him while in reality all he wanted to do was bring her even closer. 

But then Noora got up and actually got out of bed, and William reached out to take her hand. “Where are you going?”

“To get water. And then to get ready for school.” Noora replied, and William sighed deeply. School meant he couldn’t see her, couldn’t be with her like this. And at this point, he would gladly drop out in order to avoid that.

“No, not yet. We’re just going to stay here for a little bit.” he said wrapping her in his arms. 

“Just let me get water then?”

And okay, William could compromise on that. He softly reached out to stroke her cheek, and smiled. “How do I know I can trust you?” He then asked, mimicking a conversation not too long ago, and the sheer nostalgia of it made Noora roll her eyes a little. “Because I care.” She replied. “Because I care about you. I’ll be back, I swear.”

They kissed, and then she was gone, and William joked about expecting her back within 30 seconds before she walked out of the door.

###  **NOORA**

Noora walked through the apartment blindly by now, after having been here a dozen times or so, and she walked to the kitchen with a smile on her face until she heard the music coming from the room. Which was new, considering William lived alone. Perhaps there was a maid, although William never mentioned one. Walking into the kitchen Noora then saw a young guy cooking, and she concluded it definitely wasn’t a maid.

“Hi. Sorry, did I wake you?” the guy asked, pausing his dramatic, over the top music.

Noora shook her head, then extending her hand to greet the guy, who was apparently called Nikolai, and he was apparently William’s brother. Which was a lot of information at once, yet Noora hardly had time to process it before William arrived and Noora watched the dynamic between the two brothers.

When William seemed just as surprised as she was about Nikolai being there, Noora frowned a little, and she sensed the hostile subtones of the conversation clearly. Apparently William wasn’t very happy with his brother being there, to the point where he spoke for Noora when he asked if they were hungry, making it clear that he didn’t want Nikolai to interact with her at all.

And standing behind William, she couldn’t entirely see his expression, but she could tell by his body language that he was trying to protect her somehow. Which was then entirely contradicted by William announcing that Noora didn’t want food and that she wasn’t his girlfriend.

Which, if the past two and a half weeks had been any indication, she was.

Noora then finally got to see William’s face, and she was happy for it, because she found comfort in the way that he looked at her. She almost wanted to reach out and ask him right there what was going on, but the look in William’s eyes told her not too, so she sighed.

So she knew something was up. But she trusted William to explain it to her. And so for now she walked out of the kitchen, heading back towards the bedroom where she got dressed for school.

She walked out of the door without saying goodbye, hearing the sound of the kitchen appliances in the distance, and walked to school with her phone in hand. To her relief, she got a message right away.

‘Sorry about that. You know what I said wasn’t true. It just wasn’t a good time to introduce you too my brother.’ And sure, it was something, but it didn’t explain everything. 

What didn’t help with the uneasy feeling was Sana talking about guys during gym class later that afternoon. She explained her theory about how guys wanted to sleep around, mentioning how girls should make sure the guys needs were covered, and that they kept other girls at distance. The uneasy feeling settle in Noora’s stomach and it wasn’t from too many crunches.

Could that be what this was about? Had William not been protective but instead just simply distant, because they hadn’t had sex yet? Vilde’s comment about the start of Russetiden that friday was what put the nail into the coffin of Noora’s suspicions. And it got worse from there,when the next day the girl from the fundraiser commented on her lipstick. The girl she saw William talk to the evening that they had started becoming a thing. The girl who she could easily see William being interested in, perfectly in line with his previous conquests. 

Noora then closed her eyes and breathed deeply, telling herself that it was stupid to think like that. Telling herself that she had learned to trust William, and he had made her a promise which he had been trying to keep. She just couldn’t expect him to change his entire world for her in a matter of seconds. But he had already distanced himself from the most sexist penetrators, and he had told Chris to stop showing up at his apartment unannounced. She knew William was trying. For her, not for some other girl.

And so when Noora looked back at the girl she just saw a girl asking about lipstick. Not a potential competition. She was just a girl. Who had talked to William. And Noora was not going to let her relationship with William turn her into someone who she was not. “Clinique, I believe.” 

She smiled, and then was left alone in the bathroom, only for her to realize that she was late, and having smudged she ended up taking off the lipstick on her way to maths, where she heard a voice call her name. 

“Hey, Noora.” William then said from one of the classrooms, hiding behind one of the doors, suggesting her to come in. And considering that she was late for class and the fact thatt William still had to make up for his behaviour at his place, she was not very inclined to do so. But then she realized that it was probably exactly what he was trying to do, even though he was endangering their secret by doing so.

“William, you know you can’t talk to me at school…”

“I know. But I had to explain what happened yesterday.”

And yes, Noora was glad she was right about him wanting to explain himself. And she was also curious. Because for the past 24 hours Noora had many many theories, each one worse than the previous.

“The stuff yesterday wasn’t about you.”

“I was there though, wasn’t I? You called me your not-girlfriend.”

“I know. And I’m sorry. But that was for my brother’s sake.” William explained. Noora raised her eyebrow and he sighed. “It’s just that… I don’t think we should rub our relationship in his face. I can’t explain why it’s a bad idea, but trust me.”

And Noora did trust him, but she also felt like there was something he wasn’t telling her.

“But I’m sorry for coming across so hard. I’m bad at the actual relationship part, okay. You know that. I’m sorry. Hey…” He said, trying to get her to look at him from where she was looking over his shoulder and she caved, a small smile on her face. “I’m sorry. You’re not nothing to me, okay. You’re my girlfriend. I just don’t want my brother involved in that. I don’t have the best relationship with him. Sorry if I hurt you.”

“You didn’t hurt me, William.” Noora sighed. He made her a bit uneasy with his secrecy and tendency not to tell the full story, yes. But she hadn’t really been hurt. Because she had known something was going on. And she just had to wait for him to talk to her about it. “Just… don’t be an asshole again, okay?”

“I promise. I don’t want to be that guy with you.”

“That’s good.” Noora smiled, and she pulled William a little bit closer. After all no one was in the classroom, and so they took advantage of that when they kissed.


	7. Bromance

** NOORA **

Noora had left the classroom with a smile on her face, even though they came close to getting caught in the classroom with people walking in. But she simply couldn’t help it. She could not be happy whenever they crossed eyes in the schoolyard. She could not contain her smile whenever a text from William appeared.

Although she might have to tone things down a little, especially around the girls. Mainly Vilde was part of Noora’s concern, and seeing as she showed up right after William’s latest text - one in a series of flirty messages in which he told her he dreamt they had sex - Noora knew she had to be cautious.

Just to be sure, she decided to tuck away her phone, deciding to focus on the conversation instead. Which was right when Eva asked if Vilde would be jealous of William hooking up with girls during russ, and Noora eyed Vilde carefully. Vilde’s reply was a bit uncharacteristic, her words reached Noora wide and clear: ‘He has been working towards this for 3 years, it’s the most important time in his life.’

And Noora knew that well enough. She knew that this time was important to William. But so was she. That’s what he had been telling her the entire time. He had managed to balance life between being the penetrators leader and their secret relationship fine so far.

“Well I’ve heard the penetrators are not going to be so over the top though. They say the cabin thing caused a dent in their budget.”

Noora recalled the conversation she had about this with William, about how he was going to try and get the guys on board with a different concept and how he was going to use the budget to their advantage. Noora had to refuse several times when William suggested they used some of the budget for a fancy date for them, saying he should give it to charity instead.

“They’re still the penetrators. New concept and smaller budget.” Vilde answered. “They’re still going to try and hook up with every girl at the school.” Vilde said, her expression inscrutable.

At least she didn’t personally seem interested in hooking up with William anymore. But her tone of voice did make it sound like it wouldn’t totally apale her.

But Noora knew for a fact that there would be no more hooking up. At least not from William. However looking around the table at the girls who all seemed to agree with Vilde, she knew that they would think like that about William until they had seen physical proof that he could be better too.

So Noora knew she had to be patient. She would have to wait until William was public boyfriend material, and then they could be together and the other girls would see. They would see why Noora liked him. The personal side of him that she had gotten to know.

Of course in that moment, Vilde had to mention the one part of William that Noora did not know; his brother Nikolai. And the reputation he apparently carried along with him. Hooking up with girls, giving them sexual diseases… Of course Vilde would know about that. Chris apparently know too. But Noora couldn’t say anything about the fact that she had met him in person.

And she wasn’t sure if she wanted to. Because if this person was who Vilde described, then the encounter she had with him made a whole lot more sense. Which caused shivers down her spine, the thought of ever waking up anywhere near a guy like that. But what made her feel worse, was the way that Vilde predicted William would go in exactly the same direction.

That’s when Noora looked back at her phone, at the latest text from William, and she exhaled deeply.

***

It were times like these, when she was anxiously sitting on a bench around the corner from school, that she wished she could talk to someone about this whole thing. She wished she could ask someone if she was making the right decision, trusting William that he wouldn’t hook up with other people now that his brother was in town.

Eventually she had enough of it, knowing she needed a second opinion, and she typed a message, rewriting it several times to make it sound as casual as possible, but in the end there was no way she could phrase a message that wouldn’t have Eskild knocking on her door the first chance he got.

No, Eskild wouldn’t understand. He didn’t like fuckboys and he would tell Noora to break things off. But Noora couldn’t do that. She couldn’t until she had spoken to William. Until she had heard him say it.

She closed her phone again and heard a car pull up, and Noora looked around the abandoned street before she got into the car’s passenger seat.

“William, I need you to be honest with me..” she said after dodging his touch. She couldn’t get hung up in his touch if she wanted to have this conversation. As a result, William raised his eyebrows.

“Okay…. Where is this coming from? Why are you so serious?” he asked,Noora drew in a shaky breath. Then she blinked, tilting her head up to look him in the eyes right now.

“Are you going to sleep around during russ?”

William blinked a few times, the confusion on his face clearly visible.

“What?” he asked, pausing briefly. He readjusted in his seat, turning more towards her.

“Have you not been listening? Noora, I don’t want to be that guy with you.”

“Yeah well, Niko is certainly that guy. I heard his reputation. Why didn’t you tell me about him?”

And that’s when the car got silent. That’s when William sighed deeply and looked out the front window for what seemed like an eternity, but eventually it was merely a few seconds. Then he turned back towards her and he hesitantly took her hand.

“To protect you. Just like you’re not telling things to protect Vilde, right?”

William’s tone made Noora squint her eyes a bit. It wasn’t exactly an accusation, more like a very strong argument that was based on facts and he knew Noora couldn’t deny. He truly would be a great lawyer one day...

“And what if I don’t want to be protected?”

“Have you asked Vilde the same thing?” William countered. Then he sighed. “Noora, do you really think I would’ve told you all those things, tried so hard to get us together, only for me to sleep with girls during russ. For what, to be like my brother? I’m not him. I’m not that guy anymore.” And Noora had heard it so often, yet every time he said it, she welcomed the reminder.

The assurance settled down her heartbeat a bit, and she then breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth? Then she caught William smiling at her.

“William, this isn’t funny okay? I can’t… Do you have any idea how stupid it is that some rumors about Niko make me doubt this much. You just don’t really have a great track record…”

Not that Noora had to remind him.

“And you’re right, I’m not telling Vilde. Exactly because of that. She doesn’t know this version of you, to her you broke her heart, remember?”

“I remember.” William nodded.

Noora looked at him and bit her lip. “I just think… I just think that I need to know you better. So that I can show Vilde, and the other girls, that you’ve… changed.”

William looked over at his phone for a moment and then looked at Noora.

“They’re your friends, Noora. If you want to tell them about us, you should do that.” William said. “And if you do, then I can tell Chris too. Because he likes you. He knows I like you. He’s suspecting things, from not being allowed to stop by unannounced at my place anymore.”

And Noora knew where this was going. They had this conversation before, about keeping their relationship secret. But Noora wasn’t ready for the next step yet.

“Yeah well I don’t feel like walking in on him in the kitchen like other visitors of yours.” she said with a sassy look on her face, causing William to roll his eyes.

“Enough about Niko.” William said, leaning in to kiss Noora, which seemed like the most effective way of changing the subject at this point.

“Will you me about your family and stuff, though?” Noora then asked after several long kisses.

William sighed, looking somewhere over Noora’s shoulder because he apparently did not like the subject at all, and Noora used her hand on his jaw to guide him back to her. “William?”

“You don’t have to know my family in order to know me. I don’t know your family either. I don’t ask about them, because I know you don’t talk about them either. So can we just do that?” he pleaded.

“I don’t talk about my family because they don’t matter to me. Because they don’t care about me, and they never loved me.” Noora sighed.

And William looked down at that, a bit taken aback by what she said.

“I find it hard to believe that people wouldn’t love you. That’s practically impossible.”

And Noora softened at that. She looked back at him, realizing that she had been wrong to think that she was going to lose her William to the guy everyone else knew him as. In moments like this she looked at him in wonder, and she knew there was no reconciling the guy she met last year with the guy that was sitting next to her right now.

“Look… ” He said, softly stroking her hair. “I know it might be hard to trust me with this, okay? I know I have a lot of things against me. But those things are from the past. I’m not going to hurt you. But you do have to trust me. Trust me regarding my brother, okay?”

Noora nodded a little, and leaned in for a kiss when William tilted his head.

“I do. I trust you. I just want people to like you. I want them to see the guy that I see.” Noora explained. Was it so weird of her to want that? To have what they could have, being in a relationship for the whole world to see. Was she asking too much for wanting that, for believing in it?

 “It’s not that easy, Noora.” he said, flipping his hair. He sighed, and Noora watched him clench his jaw and she knew he was shielding off again. She knew that the conversation they just had was too much emotion for William. But she couldn’t help but push a little bit more;

“Why isn’t it? If you can be like this with me, then why can’t you be like this with the others?”

She was genuinely curious. Because if she ever was going to tell the girls about her relationship with William, she should probably be ready to explain why she was willing to date him if he had been nothing short of an asshole to Vilde.

“Because…. Because you… You do things.” William said, then turning back to face Noora. “You do things to me, okay?”

“Like what?” Noora frowned, and William rolled his eyes at her and her tendency to never stop asking questions. She truly would make a good journalist one day. And William loved that about her. So he sighed and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. She was fierce, this girl.

“You remind me about the good things in life, Noora. You remind me of baking cookies with my sister, of learning to ride a bike in the backyard. You remind me that not everything in my world is fucked up. That one day I could have a family that is not completely shit. If I have you, then I can have that. You.. you make me want to be better, okay.”

And okay, wow. Noora blinked. William’s face actually looked a bit in torment, like he had said too much too soon, and Noora hated that he felt like that for expressing how he felt. Because this was the William she saw in him. The William she could be proud of.

“Okay.” she smiled softly. “You don’t have to talk about-”

“No, I don’t… I mean… It’s just that… I don’t think that way with the rest of the world. When I arrive to Chris’ place and he’s covered in bruises from fighting the Yakuza. When I walk around the school and I hear all the things people say about me, about the boys. People assume the worst, but in this society that’s no wonder, really. Because this society is made out of people who are foreign to the concept of love. People who were left to raise themselves by the guidance of the internet because their parents would rather go fuck their tennis instructor than pay attention to their kids. The world is a pretty shitty place. And it’s easy to get lost in that, to pretend that there is nothing good. You’re one of the few good things in my life, Noora.”

William looked over at her, pretending like what he had just said wasn’t anything of epic proportions, but Noora was just astonished, feeling like she had just gotten a glimpse into William’s soul. Which made her realize that whatever she said next would be of big importance.

“I think you have more good in your life than you believe to have. And I think it’s time you stop running away from happiness, like you’ve done for most of your life.” She trailed her finger down his jawline to get him to look at her, and she smiled. “You deserve to be happy, William. You deserve a second chance.”

And if anyone caught him sniff a little when she said that, he would deny it was the truth. But since it was just Noora next to him, he knew she would understand.

“Yeah well… You just have to give me some time. There is a lot of stuff going on with the russebus right now, and other shit too. Chris has been going on about having a plan to do something, I don’t know what but yeah… I… I need to focus on that, okay?”

And she would. She would give him time. And space. “Okay”

William then started the engine of his car, noticing another car pulling up in the street, and he frowned a bit when Chris drove by, Isak in the passanger seat of the car, and Noora saw the same thing, looking back at William with a frown. “I didn’t know they knew each other?”

“Me neither.” William said. Yet he seemed indifferent about it, and reminded Noora of her seatbeld. “Shall I take you home?”

Noora then looked aside and nodded, still a bit confused by what she had just seen, before William drove down the street and took Noora home to the kollektiv, where they shared a quick kiss before she walked up the stairs, unlocking the door with her phone in hand in the middle of texting Eva.

‘I saw Isak Isak and Penetrator Chris together.’ she texted, and awaited Eva’s reply, which came in the form of three questionmarks, and so Noora replied with an equally clueless ‘I don’t know either.’

But part of her was intruiged. And if William was going to be busy with russ, then she deserved a distraction too.

That’s when she stopped in the halway, holding her phone to her stomach as she realized how wrong that was. She realized this wasn’t the first time this had occured, and Noora ran a hand through her hair when she realized she had poked into Isak’s privacy before. And if she expected Chris to stay out of her and William’s relationship, then why was she trying to figure out more about his?

‘Nevermind, none of our business’ she texted Eva back, and then she looked up to see Eskild staring at her from the doorway. “You okay? You seem like you just killed a puppy.”

“Yeah, yeah. No worries. Is Linn home?” Noora asked, and Eskild followed her into the kitchen. “Yeah, but I don’t think she will be eating with us. So that means you can tell me all your little vidergaende skole-gossip. I need some juicy stuff. All that’s going on at UiO is this one dude sleeping with our married teacher. And like, student-teacher affairs are just a bore.”

Noora looked up and frowned, raising her one eyebrow at Eskild in judgement before pulling out a pan she used to make paella. “Well, let me think. Eh, the penetrators are changing concept. Biggest news of the school, if you care about that stuff.”

“Are we now not allowed to call them the penetrators anymore? Because that would be such a shame.” Eskild said sarcastically, and Noora chuckled a bit. At least Eskild shared her opinion about their concept. “So that William guy is finally coming to his senses now?” Eskild said teasingly.

And Noora knew it was just a casual mention. But the fact that he actually seemed to be heading that way made it impossible for Noora to hide a small smile. Luckily, Eskild was already dancing to the fridge to get the food, and Noora turned back to the task at hand.

 

**WILLIAM**

“Fucking hell.” William said as he locked the door to the basement behind him, finally having managed to get the boys to leave him alone for the next 20 minutes until class started.

“Sorry about that.” he said, making quick paces to Noora who was sitting on a table near the storage boxes, her legs kicking underneath her. William didn’t waste time to stop them, both his hands on her thighs, and he looked up at her and the way she was playfully grinning and biting her lip.

The next moment, those lips were on his, and he moved in closer, not leaving much room between himself and Noora, aside from the table. And they didn’t move apart until minutes later, as Noora slowly pushed him away from her a bit, smiling at him softly, and William frowned.

“Have you eh… has Chris said anything? About the Isak thing?” she asked.

“Didn’t ask him. Totally forgot. Don’t worry about it.” William said, before leaning back in. That’s when his phone buzzed, most likely Chris looking for him as he wasn’t in class which was about to start in a few minutes.

“I have to go, class starts soon.”

“Okay… Can I see you tonight?” Noora asked, putting her arms around his neck. William sighed deeply and nodded. “Maybe tomorrow. Russestuff tonight.” He said, stepping away from her. 

He could tell there was a certain look of disappointment on her face, and he sighed, leaning in for one more kiss. Then he stepped away again, pulling out his phone to start a series of texts, but he never moved away further. It was as if he had forgotten he was headed for class, but simultaneously had forgotten about Noora’s existence, causing for Noora to frown.

“I can’t go upstairs with a hard on.” William explained, and Noora just chuckled at him, shrugging. And the way she looked at him didn’t help, so William looked away, shaking his head. This girl was going to be the end of him.

William’s phone then buzzed again, and William looked down expecting another message from Chris, but instead it was one from Vilde, which made him frown.

“I… just got a text from Vilde. She’s asking about partying with us, Friday… Do you want to?”

“Eh, no.” Noora replied simply.

“Why not?”

“William… I can’t party with you and Vilde.” Noora explained, and William looked at her, shaking his head. “You have to tell her at some point Noora.”

“I will. Just… not while we’re partying on Friday.”

“Okay. Fine. Your place, tomorrow?”

Noora blinked at that, and William tilted his head. “What? Can’t show your boyfriend your room?” he teased, and Noora seemed like she wanted to firmly object, but eventually she seemed to lose that resolve, and she agreed with the plan.

And so a little over 24 hours later, William finally walked up the stairs to where Noora lived, taking in the many shoes in the entryway and the narrow staircase. The living room which was the size of his own bedroom, and finally Noora’s room.

“So yeah, this is my room.” Noora smiled, and William glanced around for a few moments before he pulled Noora closer towards him, walking her towards the bed.

It didn’t take long for William to take note of the way Noora now gently leaned into his touch, and everything seemed more at ease, from the way she was smiling at him to the way her touches grew a bit more daring. Something about being in her own room probably contributing to that, William noted. He regretted not spending all those days right here, in this bed, instead of at his place with constant phonecalls from Chris, insisting he had something to talk to.

Here, it was as if he could escape his own world a bit, and dive into the one Noora lived in. He knew that at some point he would want to look around. Take in the surroundings, the little trinkets that Noora used to make this space her own. Because this room was an extension of Noora, of her soul, and he wanted to see that. He wanted to know more about her world. 

And apparently, the first thing he was going to be introduced to was her roommate, Eskild.

“William, Eskild, Eskild, William.” Noora said as she introduced them, and William struggled to contain his laughter. However Noora didn’t seem pleased. Something about privacy, and then something about Isak not being gay. Which seemed to be a thing, but William didn’t care much. He would much rather return to what they were doing. 

And when Eskild said just that, or his literal words being that Noora needed to get laid, he could just chuckle and inform Eskild that “He was trying.”

But nothing was going to happen. He knew from the minute Noora took out her phone and read the message, and when Vilde’s name dropped, William took a deep breath. “Yeah well, I can’t stop that. I’ve been like, trying to steer the guys a bit but now they’ve got their minds set on partying with a Muslim girl.” William shrugged.

“Sana? Why?”

“Why not…” William asked. Not like he didn’t know. He had seen the comment, made by Henrik, for what it was right away. And he had chuckled with the other guys just the same. But his smile had faltered a bit when he tried to envision it, and Noora’s reaction about it too.

“Okay well… you know I can’t party with you and Vilde. It won’t end well.”

William rolled his eyes because he had heard it all before; Vilde would ask questions, and she might put two and two together. 

“Fine. Now where were we.” he then said, turning Noora’s lips back to his own with his index fingers, pulling her close to him.

**

 

Unfortunately to him, the texts from Vilde didn’t stop and neither did Noora’s warnings. But at the night of the party, William blinked twice as he read the latest in the series, and this did chance things.

Vilde was not only suggesting they could sleep together - the girl had the subtlety of a hand grenade. But she also mentioned Noora, and her hooking up with one of the penetrators.

With a smirk William put his phone in his pocket, turning to the other guys. “The girls are on their way.” he told them, and he stepped outside to wait for them, pulling out his phone as he did.

‘I guess I will have to keep an eye on you tonight then.’

They should be here any moment, he knew. Vilde had texted him 5 minutes ago that they were almost there.

‘You do that.’ Noora replied. 

A few minutes later a new song came on from inside, the noise loud enough to hear on the outside even when the door was closed, but William paid little attention as he noticed the girls walking up on the dirt road. And Noora was actually among them. William hadn’t been entirely certain of it, but when he saw her he couldn’t help but feel relief.

He smiled at the other girls as they walked by. He watched as Henrik walked in to guide them inside the bus, and then it was just William standing outside, Noora walking inside last of all the girls, giving him a warning look, followed by a warm smile. One only Noora could give him.

**

 

During the party, William knew he had to keep his distance, as per Noora’s request. And talking to Vilde may not have been his top pick for that, but seeing as she appeared in front of him, he decided to have a conversation with her. 

Or try to, as she was talking very fast and very excitingly. William honestly had a bit of trouble following her trail of thought, and when he caught Noora talking to one of the other guys, his mind was completely distracted.

He only got pulled out of looking at her from a distance by Chris tapping on his shoulders, informing him that the other guys were here, and that made William blink a few times and snap back into focus.

“What do you mean they’re here? No, Chris we can not have this happen tonight.” William said, trying not to speak too loudly but he had to be louder than the music. William then glanced back over at Noora and ran a hand through his hair, knowing Chris has made up his mind. Soon, the other guys were all gathered at the front of the bus and William couldn’t do much to protest as they all headed outside.

All he could do was warn Noora, walking up to her and making her promise she would stay inside. Because whatever would happen, it wasn’t good. It was potentially very bad, even. He knew that. He knew not telling her about Chris’ plans was stupid, especially because he somehow got her to end up in the middle of them. But part of him had hoped to talk Chris out of it. To make him realize that they didn’t have to start a fistfight with the yakuza.

However talking was now out of the question too. William knew that the minute he stepped outside and saw the number of guys that had shown up, some of them already shouting and yelling insults at one another.

There were already over a dozen bodies turned to face each other by the time he walked up, his hand clenched around a bottle of champagne as he arrived at the guys.

Insults were thrown, people’s loved ones were threatened. And the back of William’s mind remembered Noora was just back at the bus, and he wouldn’t let anyone get the chance to fuck things up. He would stop the fight before it very well began, and so when the first punch got thrown, William was quick to raise the bottle he was holding, smashing it over the head of a guy he didn’t even known the name of.

Next, people were pushing him back as people were shouting and yelling, most of the guys now fighting each other. But William was held back, his hand cut open but he didn’t even notice. All he did was look up as soon as he wasn’t surrounded anymore, and he looked in the direction of the bus. There, on the road, he saw Noora’s friends standing with shocked expressions.

Noora’s friends, but not Noora. 


	8. We wanted to believe in love

**Noora**

Noora was leaning against a tree with her phone in her hand, looking down at the recent messages in the chat with the girls. She didn’t look up, not paying attention to the park where William could show up any moment now. Instead she kept scrolling for another minute, before returning to the chat with William, scrolling up a bit there.

12.30 passed and Noora sighed, putting away her phone as she held onto the strap of her bag, watching William walk down the hill in front of her. He looked calm, cool, but then he got closer and a smile appeared on his face, leaving Noora uncertain what to do.

Part of her wanted to let him wrap her up in his arms. Another part felt like pushing him away at the same time. She had to make sure he was uninjured, but she also had to know what the hell made him hit someone on the head with a bottle. 

Because Noora had tried. She had tried to think about it, tried to imagine what she would have done in this situation, but she couldn't come up with much.

“Can we walk?” William asked, and Noora blinked, focussing back on him and not on the scene she witnessed, sighing and pushing herself away from the tree. “Little walk…” she said walking towards him, but stopping an end away from him. She kept her distance. 

William deflated a bit at that, leaning in a bit. Noora could tell by the slight movement of his hand that he wanted to reach out, but he didn’t.

“Can I kiss you?” he then asked, and Noora looked at him with a deep sigh. She then reached her hand to the only injury that was visible, the bruises on his eye, and brushed away his hair a bit. The touch made William lean in closer, and Noora let out a shaky breath, taking in William’s scent. It comforted her up until a few days ago... Then she turned her head, looking at William from a close distance that made it a bit hard to look him in the eye. But she did, and then she softly kissed him.

During their walk William was chewing gum. Something he told Noora he rarely did, and Noora could tell that his entire demeanor was fired up. From the fight. From the lack of sleep, like the text messages every 20 minutes from 1 to 5AM indicated… Noora wasn’t sure, but she knew that at some point they had to stop walking and talk.

Eventually, William beat her to it.

“I know you’re probably mad.” William said. “And if you wanna yell at me, that’s fine. All I’ve done is trying to do what you ask. You wanted me to stop trying to get every girl at the school, I did. You wanted me to be nice to Vilde, I did.”

“You also hit a guy in the head with a bottle.” Noora interrupted him. William looked away from her at that, nodding. “Yeah. And now you’re going to tell me how wrong that is. How violence is bad, and I shouldn’t resort to it. And I’ll say okay, and you’ll say great, and that will be it.”

Noora huffed and shook her head. 

“William, I’m just trying to understand… Like… What you did, it could have killed him. You do realize that, right? Don’t you understand how bad that is?”

“Yeah well the yakuza going around beating up people all around Oslo is just as bad.” William countered, “Chris wanted to teach them a lesson. I had to back him up.”

Noora scoffed and was left speechless for a bit. “No you didn’t, William. You could’ve talked to them. Talked to the police. I don’t know, just… Anything but using violence to end violence.” Noora explained. And William sighed at that, at the way Noora didn’t understand that things weren’t that easy. 

He had no intention of adding oil to the fire. In fact, he hoped one powermove would end the whole thing. But he was wrong. And he had the bruises on his face to show for it. And surely he knew it was bad. In hindsight, he should have known better, yes. But in that moment simply nothing else came to mind. 

Just the thought of it seemingly made William tense up a bit, and when Noora noticed she reached out for his hand, taking it in hers. This grounded William again, looking at her with regret and conflict. “Noora, just… You can’t do this. You can’t judge me for this when… when the world is filled with violence and war, okay? Please don’t be naive. You’re smart enough to know Norway became the country it is today because we fought for this democracy and freedom.”

William’s words echoed loud. Not only because he meant them to, but because a marching band passed by them just then. Then, things turn silent.

“I… I don’t know William. I don’t think I can be with a guy who hits bottles on other people’s heads.” Noora said. William’s brain seemed to stop turning at that, and he looks at Noora closely, gazing if she meant it. And Noora looked down, sighing. “I just need some space, William.” She meant it.

Neither of them was looking at one another at this point. They were both sort of rocking back and forth on their feet, and right now Noora wished the marching band was back to fill up the silence.

“I just need to think about all this stuff. And I can’t think. I…” Noora ran a hand through her hair. “I can’t think when I’m with you, William. When I’m with you I only see you. But there is this whole world out there in which you,” she said pointing at his chest, “are a different guy. And those things I just… I just can’t merge. Everything is a mess in my head when I try to figure it out and I just…”

“Okay.” William cut in. “Noora, okay.” he repeated, when Noora was still breathing rapidly. “A bit of space. I got it.” He said. He then looked at her and brought up his hands slowly - Noora only now noticed he dropped the stick he was carrying at some point, and he rested them on both her shoulders. Then he leaned forward, pressing a final kiss on Noora’s head and when that wasn’t enough he lingered a bit more, taking everything in. 

Noora’s eyes were stinging when he backed away, and then he sighed defeatedly and he looked aside, to the direction he should be taking to get to his car. “I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but perhaps talking to Vilde will help figure things out. She’s been texting non-stop.” William announced, and then he walked away, hands in his pockets and his head bent down.

Noora blinked. Once, twice. William just went out of sight when she felt the air return to her lungs, and she then took a look around to orient herself, before she started walking down a pathway in the opposite direction of where she had watched William walk away.

**

She didn’t see him at school. She heard about him though, as the entire school discussed the events of the weekend. Vilde and Chris most of all. Yet in an uncharacteristic turn of events, Noora wasn’t hearing her boyfriend’s name from her mouth like usual. Just ‘the penetrators’. And some sort of connection between the hate comments that had appeared on Sana’s instagram, and Noora leaned in to take a look before she leaned back again, listening to Eva explain a story of one of the Penetrators herassing Sana. Which made Noora want to grab her phone and ask William about it, but she stopped herself in that moment. 

That’s when she heard Eva talk about how the fight came to be, how apparently Isak and Jonas had gotten in touch with the Penetrators after Jonas got beat up, and suddenly it clicked in Noora’s head. The fight, seeing Chris and Isak. She sighed slightly, glad that she had never jumped further into conclusions. 

That’s when Noora caught Sana looking at her, and she emerged herself into the conversation about how they could be in big trouble if someone filmed it. Not that Noora was part of that ‘we’ Eva spoke of. But she still didn’t want her friends to get in any sort of trouble. Noora had been lucky in that way, having left when she did. She knew her friends had been there for most of the fight, while Noora turned away the second William smashed the bottle. 

***

The entire school pretty much talked about the fight in the next couple of days to come. And so when Noora had enough of it for a bit she found herself a quiet classroom to work on her article for Norwegian.

“Hi girl.” a voice from the door frame cut through her thoughts, because who was she kidding if she really thought she could focus on writing when William was walking around in the courtyard, typing on his phone and physically distancing himself from the group of Penetrators that were acting out on the benches a bit further away.

“Hi?” Sana then said from closer by, and Noora was startled a bit, then she smiled softly at Sana and released her notebook from where she clutched it against her chest.

“What’s up?” Sana asked, not even pointing out the way Noora had jumped up a little, which was suspicious enough. Noora should have known then that Sana was onto her. “Trying to write an article for Norwegian. Or… failing to.” Noora said.

Sana breathed in and nodded, looking outside to where William was pacing. “And you can’t concentrate because the flashes of your boyfriend smashing a bottle over someone’s head keep replaying in front of your eyes?” Sana asked. Matter of factly. As if Noora and William and the words boyfriend were the most logical match-up in the world.

Noora blinked, her cheeks turning read because she felt like a toddler caught stealing from the cookie jar. Sana then arched her eyebrows, and Noora shrugged, then nodded. “Yeah. That’s pretty much it.”

This was easy, Noora thought. If only Vilde would be so easy. If only things weren’t so complicated, with William being the most notorious guy at school, with almost a dozen girls having slept with him in the few months she had been at Nissen already.

Yet she was pretty certain none of those other girls had ever seen William the way she had. Which was why she had no problem admitting that “The thing is I’m sort of falling for him.”

Sana just smiled. All-knowingly, like it wasn’t at all a surprise to hear Noora say it out loud. Which sort of annoyed Noora, and she playfully crossed her arms. “How long have you known, Sana?”

“A while. Didn’t click until you walked away at the fight though. I thought you would stay, help us all to deal with it. When you left, I knew it was personal. Because of William.” Sana replied.

Noora took in the information and leaned back against the wall behind her, sighing deeply. She looked outside, where William had joined his friends again, although they really had to pull him in to get him to engage with them, which created a knot in Noora’s stomach.

“I do admire you, Sana.” Noora then said. “I mean… you don’t get involved in all of this stuff. You have your values. And I just… I just feel like I lose my values when I’m with him. Because sometimes it feels like nothing is more important than just being with him.”

Sana nodded, listening in a way that only Sana could listen without judgement, staying neutral on the matter. “So then why aren’t you with him?” she asked.

Noora’s reply came after a sigh; “Because he… isn’t a good guy. Because people don’t know him as a good guy.” Noora said, correcting herself. “Which… he is.”

Sana breathed in deeply, some of her neutrality fading in Noora’s eyes, but then she recovered, tilting her head a bit. “So… he’s not a bad person when he’s around you?” she asked.

Noora looked at her, the look on her face saying she wouldn’t feel this way if he was. And so Sana nodded, looking outside. “If he’s better with you, then that’s good.”

“Well, I mean… he is trying. At least.” Noora said. And she now noticed how she was playing devil’s advocate. But in her head she had been defending William to all the people who spread rumors about him all this time. In her head she had been wanting to tell them all he wasn’t so bad. And when, last week, one of the girls at the table next to them had pointed out he seemed like he had toned down on the fuckboy behaviour, Noora wanted to thank her out loud. But she couldn’t. All she could do was repeat in her head that William was a better person than who they made him out to be.

“It’s a good thing he’s trying.” Sana said.

And Noora sighed in frustration, looking at Sana with big eyes. “Yeah but he… like… you know. He’s still Penetrator William for the rest of the school. And we can’t be together because of that and I don’t…”  _ I don’t know how to handle that _ , Noora thought.

“Noora.” Sana spoke, taking advantage of the pause Noora had taken in an effort to clear up her thoughts. “Who decided you can’t be together?”

Noora swallowed a bit. She did.  For all the reasons. At least half a dozen came to mind. “Me.”

“Then why are you complaining? Go be with him if that’s what you want?” 

Noora had once seen Sana use this strategy on another girl in the hallway asking her why she wore her hijab. She had been impressed as to how Sana got her to grasp the concept that it was something she wore, and that it was something she had decided.

“No but he agreed too. He doesn’t want people to think he conquered me or something.” Noora reasoned, and that’s when Sana’s eyebrow arched, and the corner of her mouth jumped up.

“So… what’s the problem then? That he is smarter than you?” She smiled.

Noora looked at her, only slightly annoyed at the comment and she returned to look outside to where William was packing up his stuff from the benches along with his friends. He was taking charge, heading into the opposite building and then they were gone, out of sight.

“I just… I’m just trying to be strong and independent, you know. I can’t… I can’t let a guy or a relationship affect me in this way, Sana.”

“But don’t you think it shows strength and confidence if you can be with who you want to be with? And without fearing what other people might think?”

Noora sighed and pulled at the ends of her hair. This discussion wasn’t going anywhere.

“Yeah but he…. he is also violent. Because he… He has this image in his head that you solve things with violence and that’s not right and me, I’m… I’m fully against war, you know.”

Sana knew. Noora had made her read through an essay for history class once, which was more than slightly biased when it came to the whole war conflict.

“Noora, he did not smash that bottle because he believes in war. He did it because he thought that was the thing he should do. So why would that be, then? I mean… have you asked? Have you asked why he did what he did? Without judgement?” Sana asked. “Because if you can’t try to understand the reasoning of someone you claim to have romantic feelings for...”

The bell ringing was like a blessing to Noora, allowing her to just look at Sana without having to say how right she was. Because Noora did have those feelings. But it felt like they only applied to a part of William. Like there was this whole other side to him that she felt nothing for. That she hated. The fading bruises on his face being a visual reminder every time she looked at him that the part of him that she hated was still in there. Somewhere. The bell stopped ringing.

“I just… I know he can be better. I’ve seen it. He’s better when we’re together. I just don’t know how to bring it out. And I’m trying to understand how he can be so different with me compared to others. And it’s confusing.”

Noora then got up and put her notebook away, before she felt Sana’s hand on her shoulder. They weren’t in a hurry to go anywhere. Their next class took place in this very room. Noora wasn’t sure why she was so frantically gathering her things, until she looked at Sana and she stopped the movement of her hands.

“Can’t you see? It’s not really that hard, Noora. Look.” Sana said, glancing at the door once. “It’s his armor. His violence, his reputation. The fact that he does things that make you question if you should be with him. He has an armor. A method, to keep people away. And maybe you’ve caught glimpses of what’s underneath. But if he’s still wearing it half the time…” 

Sana clicked her tongue, before moving her bag to her favorite seat on the second row. “He is the only one who can change if he wants to. It’s up to him. Not you.”

Noora took her seat right in front of Sana, turning around to listen to what her friend has to say. But Sana is done talking. She opens her books and looks up one more time at Noora who is already lost in thought again. “Yeah well, I’m scared that instead of doing that he is changing me.”

“Change doesn’t always have to be a bad thing in a relationship, Noora. Two people in a relationship who remain the exact same people throughout the course of it, that’s just weird.”

**

Noora’s first instinct after her talk with Sana was to meet up with William. But she knew she couldn’t do that. She knew that she needed to use the space she had asked for, even if it meant being without him for longer. 

And so Noora found herself walking up the stairs with two cups of coffee, finding Vilde there training, just like she had texted her twenty minutes. 

If this talk with Vilde went even remotely as well as talking to Sana, then Noora had no reason to be nervous. Yet despite of that thought, her hands were shaking and the contents of the coffee inside the cup were only protected by the lids on it. She would be a horrible barista.

“Noora?” Vilde then asked, slowing down her pace when she saw Noora. Noora wasn’t sure what Vilde expected, after Noora asked her if they could talk and Vilde replied she was at the park. Although in hindsight, Noora should have known Vilde was exercising. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

Noora handed over her cup of coffee and eyed Vilde closely. And she knew she had to start talking, despite the fact that Vilde probably already had an idea that this was a serious talk about a serious topic. And apparently Noora wasn’t the best liar, as Sana had proven. 

“I’m dating William.” Here went nothing.

Vilde didn’t hesitate long. “Does he love you?” 

Noora expected this question somehow. She expected Vilde’s unrequited love for William to play a big part in this conversation. Perhaps not from the very start. But it was a good question to ask.

“I think so.” Noora said. For some reason she sounded apolegetic. And when Vilde looked away, Noora could see the realization rush in.  _ Okay, this is happening _ , Noora saw Vilde think. 

“What… what are you thinking?” Noora asked cautiously.

Vilde replied with a soft smile. “Relief, a bit?” she said, a bit unsure herself.

Then her brows furred, and she became more certain of her answer. “That he feels the same way about you, I mean.” she clarified. “Relief. Because when I slept with him he was very kind and nice to me. And when I had my first time with him, it meant something for me. And I always thought it meant something for him too. And I knew he was a fuckboy, yet I became obsessed with that scenario.”

Noora took a sip of her coffee just to give her hands something to do.

“When he said I wasn’t good enough, I was done with him. Because I understood that he would never feel anything for me. But then he apologized and we hung out with them and I started doubting again. And that doubt just… wasn’t good.”

Silence took a place in between the two of them. Noora just listened. Even though she had told Vilde she was the one who wanted to talk. 

“But now, that I see that he is in love, now that I know how he feels… about you. That’s… that’s good to know.”

Noora nodded. Telling Vilde was the right thing. Something she had known all along, but knowing that hearing in confirmation still calmed her nerves.

“Can I ask you something, though?” Vilde then asked.

Noora looked up. A bit tense yet again. But she knew that she owed Vilde to answer her questions. She actually already had an idea as to which one she was going to ask.

“All those time you said he was a bad guy. That he was not good enough for me.” Vilde said, taking a sip of her coffee. Then she looked back at Noora. “Is he good enough for you?”

Noora took a deep breath, looking away. Could she hit the nail on the head even harder. What Vilde asked had been one of the main questions on Noora’s mind. Her internal struggle ever since that first kiss. The voice inside her head that told her that it wasn’t a good idea.

Apparently Noora’s facial expression was enough for Vilde to get her answer, and she comfortingly reached out to Noora.

“Thanks for telling me.” 

Noora smiled. “Of course.”

And Vilde smiled back. “Well… it’s not that obvious. You could have kept it a secret. Let me talk on and on about William while you were secretly dating him.” she said.

Noora bit her lip at that.

“Well… I sort of did though. It’s still a secret. It has been a secret since the auction.”

Vilde smiled at that. Taking another sip of her coffee. “I know. I was just testing you.”

Vilde actually winked. Like… for some reason the girl who was talking about her insecurities about a guy not loving her back a minute ago had vanished and been replaced with someone who had found a new sense of confidence. Who could accept that someone else was filling in the role that she had invisioned for herself since the beginning of vidergaende.

“You knew?”

“Have known for a while. Anyways, now I have to continue my training though. This body doesn’t happen by itself. Thanks for the coffee. I’ll see you at school?”

Noora smiled. Vilde’s newfound confidence was inspiring. 

A dozen seconds later Noora heard the rythmic steps of Vilde on the stairs, running up and down. And she took a deep breath in. And out. Things would be fine.

**

**WILLIAM**

On the other side of Oslo, William’s feet were moving in a similar rhythym, one foot in front of the other as he pressed his thumb on the up arrow. The running track had a built-in music function that he usually took advantage of, but his phone had decided to die and his customized playlist was on there so there was no point in trying to listen to anything. Except the sound of his own feet, one foot in front of the other in a uphill running pace.

“Hey eh, will we stop by Jakob’s for his birthday after this?”

It was friday evening. 6PM. Usually they would already have plans made for the rest of the weekend at this point. Russetiden was a non-stop of parties they had to show up at. It was all about seen and be seen.

Yet here they were. At their gym, working out. No plans made for the weekend aside from some vague promises that they would hang out with half the male population of Oslo. Insert Chris, trying very hard to get William to commit to any of those plans. But William only had one track of mind. One thought. The slippery slope of hanging out with the wrong people and the consequences of that. And how it would put him even further away from his goal of showing Noora she could trust him.

“I don’t know.” William said, as he finally lowered the speed on the treadmill again. Chris had been lifting weights behind him, and as William grabbed a towel he threw one to Chris. “How well do we know him anyways?”

“You slept with his sister. As long as he doesn’t find out, we’re his friends.” Chris grinned. William sighed and covered his face with his towel out of convenience. Slippery slope. Case in point.

“Thanks for that heads up. I didn’t remember.” William said. Chris just laughed and headed towards the showers. “Of course you didn’t bro. I got your back. And who knows, if she is not your mystery lady maybe I will take a turn.” 

William laughed Chris on, who then disappeared behind the corner. Then Chris’ phone alerted him of a notification, and he sighed. More parties. Penetrator Henrik asking if he could bring alcohol. William’s fingers were typing like they had their own mind. ‘Sure, got it covered’. Send. Fuck. What was he doing.

“Hey, are you going to stay at the gym the entire night or what?” Chris yelled from the other room. William looked at the phone, and then he looked up, to the mirror in front of him.

An hour later, he stood in front of his mirror at home, ready to go out with his friends. 

**

The party was crap. The alcohol, the one thing William counted on to make him feel less like crap, was crap. His entire life was crap.

“Another bottle bro?” Chris asked when William stared at the empty bottle in his hand. Then Chris noticed the look on William’s face, and he dropped the smile on his face.

“Your secret lady dump you or something?” Chris asked. William’s eyes shot up right away. Defeated.

“She would, if she knew how badly I wanted to get wasted and fuck one of those random girls there.”

Chris drew in a breath.

“Well damn. You’re really hooked aren’t you. Someone actually managed to tame you.”

William looked at Chris and put down his bottle. He was so done. “Fuck off Chris.”

“No no no… You don’t get it. Dude, seriously, chill.” Chris said, stopping William from walking away from their conversation. He held up his hands in an apologetic way. “Sorry bro. I didn’t mean it as a bad thing. Just…. humor me. It’s her, isn’t it? That girl? Noora?” 

William felt a new wave of defeat rush over him. He had to leave. 

“Hey, hey… where are you going?”

“To her.” William said. 

He was already making a way through the crowd, heading for the door. Chris was quick enough to pick up his things and go after him, descending the stairs of the apartment they had been partying in. Finally, out on the road several houses down, Chris caught up to him. 

“Hold on a minute bro. Seriously. What… what are you doing?” Chris asked as William reached for his keys. 

William looked around for his car and pressed the button a few times, but he couldn’t locate it. “Where did we park?” he frowned.

“You didn’t, idiot. I drove. Now let’s go. Come on.” Chris said, dragging William in the right direction.

It was only minutes later when William was looking out of the window. His head was pounding. And Chris kept talking about how he got things under control. As long as the cops didn’t stop them. 

William saw the highway signs above his head. Gardemoen, next exit. They were driving along the water next. He recognized the road. They drove here when they went to Hamar. Then they kept driving.

Another hour later the car stopped, and William looked up to see a familiar house. Chris’ parents house in Lillehammer.


End file.
